Research focus This project is an attempt to answer the following research and educational question: How can I improve

the integration of ICT in the teaching of Spanish and Irish in Ireland? We have chosen this area of research because I see an urgent need to aid the integration of ICT in the language classroom. This aid comprehends not only the creation of electronic materials suitable for the Irish context, but also, and perhaps mainly, an endeavour to raise teachers awareness about the implications of ICT for the way we teach and the way we learn. Therefore, my research focus is how to teach teachers to discover computers, but not only ( in the terminology of Wellivers Instructional Transformation Model) in the phases of familiarisation or utilization, but on the phases on integration and reorientation. We aim to do show not only by calling their attention to some aspects of the theoretical framework behind this practice, but also by giving them practical activities, both in Irish and in Spanish.

What is happening now before my intervention? Among teachers of Spanish, Irish and language teachers in general we have observed a mixture of fear and anxiety towards technology. The fear originates in being a generation that has not been trained with technology. In contrast, the generation being taught plays with this technology. The anxiety causes an introduction of ICT just because, without any reflection on the learning theories behind these aids or the pedagogies promoted by them. This can also be said about other subjects and outside the Irish context. In September Maryan attended an international conference on the use of ICT in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. The 102 papers presented a wide range of activities and good practice with all the new technologies. However, there was very little reference to learning theories and ICT (of course there were references to learning theories, but within the frame of second language pedagogy). As already said before, her impression was that, thought the practice is good, is not as good as it could be simply because ICT is used as an urgent must and with very little attention to the rationale behind it. Regarding to what is happening in the Irish context, we will proceed to give some examples to some of which I have already referred to in my journal entries. We tried to find out about ICT in the teaching of Spanish at secondary level. Through the Association of Teachers of Spanish we heard of a teacher who had authored a CD ROM and a third of his classes took place in the computer lab. Maryan attended a presentation he gave in the Association AGM. This confirmed our "theory": practice is good but we are still very far from an appropriate integration of ICT. His ideas were very good (for example, using a CD ROM for tourist promotion of a city and give the students a task book they have to complete navigating the Cd, reading and selecting information. With this he was showing how to exploit materials that were not design language pedagogy purposes and how to exploit them to the maximum by creating a task book that would meet the level and needs of his students. However, the computer here is only a delivery mechanism; instead of reading from the page the students navigate through a screen, which could be more attractive and motivating. There was no sound or other media but the text and graphics. This is definitively innovative in the context of L2 in secondary level, but it is still a very reduced view of the potential of ICT. The CD Rom authored by this teacher with front page consisted on a series of resources (links of interest, leaving Cert sample papers, texts, activities). Therefore, a delivery mechanism again All this is no doubt innovative. The most interesting bit was sample oral exams for the

junior Cert. They included audio. This innovation is closer to a more suitable use of ICT in the teaching of Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes is organising a CALL workshop in March. The morning session will be on Internet resources and the afternoon session will be on a site created by some lectures from the Cervantes. Obviously we cannot evaluate the quality of the workshops, we simply present this information because it refers us back to what we have already said: the internet is the most popular tools among all in the ICT range; teachers are making their first attempts to author materials, but again, very close to the Internet. Criteria, standards and values to explain my practice Our approach to teaching and learning with ICT can be summarised in the following points: ICT is very much related to hypertext. Meaning construction is different from the traditional concept of text. This has implications fro the way we learn, read and construct knowledge. Hypertext epistemology is still on its infancy. ICT brings within it the possibility of multimedia integration. Multimedia caters for multiple intelligences. Traditional forms of representation favoured those with verbal intelligence. ICT offers possibilities to other types of intelligences. The computer is not only a delivery mechanism. It has the potential to be a tool. Misuse and abuse are distracting our attention from the full potential of ICT. The computer is not to present materials in a more attractive and motivating form. The computer is there to present materials in a form that print technology cannot reach. The same way teachers author teaching aids an materials in the print form, teachers can author electronic materials and aids in electronic form. In spite of what it may seem, the difficulty of authoring electronic material is not the lack of technical expertise. The main obstacle is to master a new form of literacy. First attempts to author can be found in the Irish context, but they are reduced to web sites. No multimedia or hypertext authoring, because this demands more than technical skills, and our concept of ICT and learning is not yet that far. Another aim of this project is to demystify the authoring of ematerials and show that teachers can do it and that perhaps in the future, teachers are to do it. ICT demands anew form of literacy. Traditionally literacy has been defined as the ability to read and to write. Now, this concept needs some reshaping, as the medium is no longer the print one and ICT creates a "supersymbolic" world (Teaching with technology: chapter 3) Regarding the factor "motivation", we believe it to be a key one in the process of learning and acquiring a second language. The computer has the potential to motivate the learners, as this generation associates the PC with playing and fun. This fun and enjoying may produce what psychologists have labelled "moments of optimum flow" (Langer & Czikszentmihalyi)1. Theorists believe in the enormous potential of computers to replicate these moments of optimal flow. We agree.

Source http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~gnjantzi/learning_theories.htm

 So far we have referred to our values in relation to ICT. Within foreign language pedagogy we identify ourselves with the communicative approach. We present all our language samples in a context and, if suitable for the level, a task is required (we also believe in task based learning). When use authentic materials and authentic language samples. For example, the personality types and colour has been obtained from a teenagers magazine, though some editing was needed because this is a beginners activity. There are three phases of CALL (Warschauer): behaviouristic, communicative and integrative. The last one is based on multimedia and the internet (the two most important technological developments of the last decade). For language learning and other disciplines this means a medium of global communication and an unlimited source of authentic materials. We design our activities within the theoretical framework of integrative CALL. (Language) Learning is a holistic process. The more types of representation/media integrated, the easier to learn. "Haz clic en espaol" has been designed considering all these values and criteria, trying to be a meeting point for theory and practice.

The website
As we have already said, one of the innovative aspects of this site is the pair of languages used. This combination is rooted in the authors competence and interests. We describe the different section within the site.

Homepage: a menu

1. Profesores: page with a presentation for the teachers. Aim: to give on one single screen a theoretical background on ICT implications for teaching and on the structure of the site 2. muinteoir: the same page in Irish 3 Enlaces de inters: this list of links, again in a bilingual form, is sorted in different groups (authoring tools, resources) we provide a summary about the content and evaluate it.

4. Autores/ information about ourselves and links to our mail and homepages. 5 Haz clic en espaol 6.Dan clic an gaeilge. Both sites contain more or less the same and follow the same structure. Description of Haz clic en espaol. We classify the activities in three levels: inicial/ intermedio/ avanzado

We have tried to divide the different activities in three sections:

en la pantalla (on the screen) A presentation of the contents, but always in a forma that it is different from the print medium (animation, some cursor movement need to access the info etc)

guardar en el disco duro ( save it on your hard disk) the main points to remember. Again presented differently than in paper

manos al ratn (hands on the mouse). Exercises to practice what has been learnt from the two previous sections. These exercises had been produced with Hot Potatoes. Again this makes the whole activity different from a book, as Hot Potatoes gives feedback, offers hint on request and other forms of interaction. There is a brief explanation in the page for teachers about these three parts, and the rationale behind them. Example of one of these pages: colores Aim of the page: learn the colours, vocabulary of personality. Adjectival endings.

En al pantalla: in order to discover the personality associated with a colour, the children will have to place the cursor on top of the colour. This was done inserting roll overs. The effect is good and dynamic (therefore different from a book, exploration is needed, as not all the information is given ain a linear form) No need to say this adds motivation and fun. Guardar en el disco duro: what they have to remember this time is the adjectival endings: O for masculine, A for feminine and no change for adjectives ending in E or ISTA. This is explained visually with animation in the adjectival ending. This way we are not presenting the grammatical rule as such. Manos al ratn: activities to practice what had been presented in the two previous sections. We have some matching activities, cross words and gap filling. Professional Learning and Learning outcome So far it has not been possible to test this site with any target user. We hope to give the URL to teachers we know and ask them to access it and use it. We hope to expand it and include it in Teachnet. Once it has been used and some feedback has been received, we hope to present it to the competition "European Label for Innovative Language Teaching and Learning"

The professional learning out of this project comprehends several aspects: Dreamweaver skills: I have used features of Dreamweaver that I had not used before. Design skills: here the module GUI and Human Computer Interaction has been an invaluable aid. We have tried to apply the advices, guidelines and principles given in the module, both for usability and good design. This comprehends for common sense features such as consistency in the font and colours to more engineering issues such as what navigation routes to offer. Or for example, rewriting for the web what had to be said to the teachers. We have seen by ourselves that web design is a discipline between art and engineering. The technical difficulties so far have not been many. As we mentioned in our development journal, we plan to include samples of the oral Leaving Cert exams. We will have to do the recording and prepare the audio files so that there are no storage problems. We have also some ambitions ideas that will include video. We are aware that what we are doing is not technically impressing. This is not our aim. As said in the introduction, we are trying to encourage teachers to author. The main difficulties are in how to "hyperauthor": how to organise the information in hypertext and hypermedia. When planning a lesson in " Haz clic", for instance the hour, the difficulty was not what to include (the hour, daily routine verbs, daily routine vocabulary), but how to present this in hypermedia. Authoring by language teachers should be demystified. We have proven that it can be done. We repeat here that the challenges are not where they seem to be.

Conclusions Tapscott cites eight shifts in learning today2: From linear to hypermedia
2

http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~gnjantzi/learning_theories.htm

From instruction to construction and discovery From teacher centred to learner centred education From absorbing material to learning how to navigate and how to learn from school to lifelong learning (including ourselves) from one-size-fits-all to customized learning from learning as torture to learning as fun From the teacher as transmitter to the teacher as facilitator.

We have tried to design Haz clic en espaol/Dan clic as gaeilge within the frame of learning today: hypermedia, discovery, learner centred, learning how to learn, lifelong learning, customised learning, learning as fun, teacher as facilitator.

Bibliography

Jonassen D H (1996) Computers in the Classroom: Mindtools for Critical Thinking. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey & Columbus, Ohio. Norton P & Wiburg K M (1998) Teaching with Technology. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Orlando, Florida. Warschauer, Mark, Computer assisted Language, An Introduction, . In S. Fotos (ed.) Multimedia language teaching (pp. 3-20) Logos International
http:///www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~gnjantzi/learning_theories.htm