TECHNOLOGY IN NEWFOUNDLAND FRENCH CLASSES

emurphy@mun.ca

Murphy, E. (1998). Technology in Newfoundland French Classes. Voyons: Modern Languages' Council Bulletin.

Technology use is alive and well and happening in French classes all over Newfoundland! Testimony to this are the numerous projects, activities and on-line sites currently being developed or undertaken by core and immersion teachers alike. French coordinator with the Avalon East Board, Gary Young, believes that these are "fascinating times" with "lots of excitement around the world about technology and learning". "The time is right," argues Gary, "to utilize technology to favour the learning of French as a second language, to motivate students, to allow them to research information about the items they are learning, to assist them in communicating to speakers of the language in various parts of the world, and to provide a means for them to communicate their work accomplishments to the school and community". The enthusiasm expressed by Gary about technology use is common amongst French teachers in Newfoundland.

Robin MacDonald, a former teacher at J.R. Smallwood Collegiate in Wabush who now works in Moncton, loves to use technology in her classroom: "I love using the Internet for my French classes and my kids do too!" claims Robin. Her students are involved in many different types of Internet learning experiences as Robin describes:

I have done guided travel tours that I must research myself first, and the kids visit all kinds of exotic destinations C searching for the answers to questions on the guide sheet. We have explored comic strips, written letters to Santa, listened to French Radio and looked up the kids' favorite music groups. My newest adventure is into the chat rooms. We have a site on the Imaginet Page that has an empty room and we all sign into it, take on identities and chat with each other in French! I circulate around the room and give advice on grammar errors or expressions that I see on the screens without everyone else knowing who I'm talking to! Also, we debate certain topics and the anonymity lets the shier kids who might not participate in an oral discussion express their comments. My grade 12 immersion did "Le Petit Prince" this semester and, to break up the monotony, we came to the Internet lab to read the book on-line. The kids also were able to read reviews of the book.

Robin's experiences are not unlike those of many other French teachers in Newfoundland who are using technology as an innovative means of delivering the curriculum. Sean Penney at Holy Heart of Mary High School in St. John's has put his Économie Mondiale course completely on-line with links for student research, course objectives and various activities. He has even created an interactive grammar site where the students can check their total score. Sean describes how this site is designed:

I've tinkered with JavaScripting to produce a personalized, interactive way to reinforce French grammar. I wouldn't use this as a teaching tool, but it has a lot of potential for "une intervention grammaticale" when I notice a problem or concern. The student types her name in, it asks her questions, the student answers the questions, it corrects the student's work and gives immediate feedback, and, at the end of the lesson, it calculates an overall score for the student based on her performance. On-line help is available as well. Different levels of difficulty are available here: (1) the student chooses the correct word from a pop-up list, (2) the student types the word into the blank that's provided. This kind of setup can be easily adapted for use in a language lab, as a listening exercise.

Besides using the Internet, teachers at Bishops College are experimenting with other forms of technology. David Newhook, French immersion teacher, describes how he and Claire Frankel, also teaching at Bishops, use Microsoft's PowerPoint software for most of their grammar explanations. They are hoping to have these presentations added to the Bishops' homepage to allow student reference from home. A video-conference is being planned for March 1998 with a partner school in Lyons. In the context of this partnership, the Level III French students will be making short videos to be sent off to France. Internet use also figures as an important means of integrating technology at Bishops as David explains:

Both 1202 and 2202 classes are developing websites on Alexis and Maria Chapdelaine. They have all completed "dissertations" on various angles of the book which will be compiled and interconnected in one site. The hope is that this site will be a study reference for students in our schools as well as abroad. Feedback from our Francophone partner schools in Rouen and Lyons will be an added plus. Three of my more advanced students are programming a virtual Acadian Murder Mystery coming soon to a computer screen nearest you. Fourteen students have penpals in a Lyons' school.

Many French teachers are no doubt familiar with the work being done in the area of technology integration by Jane Scaplen from Marystown. Jane has set up a French page on STEM-Net at http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/-jscalen/frenchpg.html which would be of particular interest to teachers of French interested in using technology in their classroom. She has compiled Un Guide aux Ressources Françaises sur L'Internet which aims to provide connections to French resources on the WEB and which includes links for students and teachers to projects, software and lessons. Most interesting in this site is the information concerning projects and keypals. One of these projects, designed by Jane herself, is called Dessinez-moi un monstre which is described as follows:

Les élèves écrivent des descriptions de monstres, en donnant des renseignements à propos de l'apparence, de l'habitat, de la nourriture, des passe-temps... Ils dessinent aussi une image de leur monstre; les dessins peuvent être faits à l'ordinateur ou sur papier, puis enregistrés avec un scanner. On peut utiliser n'importe quel traitement de texte pour les descriptions et, pour les dessins, PaintBrush, ClarisWorks ou un autre logiciel semblable. C'est souhaitable, cependant, de changer les graphiques au format JPG ou GIF. Nous nous occuperons de la mise en page. Ce projet favorise le développement des habilétés des élèves avec la communication écrite et leur fait excercer aussi l'imagination.

Gerard Cooke, another French teacher from Marystown, has created a project called Histoires de la Mer designed for students of age 8 and up. Histoires de la Mer is a very original project that helps students learn and share information about their environment and heritage through use of the Internet. Gerard describes his project.

Ce projet est un projet qui commence avec notre communauté, Marystown, et de la dynamique de la ville avec la mer. Habitez-vous près de la mer? Connaissez-vous des récits de cette vaste étendue d'eau salée? Nous sommes à la recherche des histoires à propos des communautés et du leur rapport avec l'océan et nous vous invitons à prendre part à notre projet. Pourquoi? C'est une meilleure façon d'étudier la communauté en prenant connaissance de histoires racontées. Comment? C'est en faisant des entrevues avec des personnes plus âgées de la communauté que nous espérons apprendre au sujet de l'influence de la mer sur nos communautés.

The stories collected by Gerard's students are all available on-line, as are the monsters designed through Jane's project. The monsters are as colorful, as delightful and as wonderful as the students' stories of the sea. Both projects are examples of how technology can allow students and teachers to share information, to be creative, to explore ideas, to communicate outside of their classroom and to manage information. Gary was right: these are fascinating and exciting times for French education in Newfoundland. What is truly exciting is that, as teachers, we are learning too. Technology presents new challenges, new possibilities, new ways of teaching, of learning, of communicating and of collaborating. Newfoundland teachers appear more than willing to face the challenge, to learn something new and to experiment. Indeed, technology is alive and well and thriving in French classes