Педагогические науки / 5. Современные методы преподавания

Тищенко М.А.

НТУУ «КПІ ім. І. Сікорського», Україна

PRESENTING INFORMATION BY MEANS OF
WEB TECHNOLOGIES

The main educators' problem is the ability to present information in an understandable and interacting way. While material may have considerable merit in its own right, its impact will be lost. Most teachers have seen the positive influence a multimedia approach has when presenting information to students. Now the products that utilize web technologies to improve the way teachers present information are evolving.

The PPI Publishing's PowerWord, a web environment that is cross-platform, thus, runs on top of either Windows or Macintosh operating systems. PowerWord includes a question-and-answer mode that presents an online test, grades the student's responses and prints a report on how he or she performed on the website. Students type commands that link to pictures, sounds or other text within a document online. When done, the software bundles the elements together. The compiled data must be sent via the Internet to PPI Publishing. The company will then host the materials directly to the teacher's website, which also has a special player. The company feels strongly that true web presentations/documents should not reside on one's hard drive. When launching the software, none of the web elements are saved to the user's storage device; they all remain on the web. Time-based packages use either a timeline or slideshow structure. Both present elements in a certain order, embedding buttons or links that branch to other support information, be that graphics, animation, video or other text.

Here are the examples of web presentation packages based on the timeline metaphor:

- Tool Corp. offers COMP 3.6, which incorporates tools to create onscreen presentations as well as slides and overheads. Linking multimedia effects to words or bullets is as simple as clicking on an object, selecting the media type (digital video, animation, etc.), and choosing the specific media clip. COMP provides a huge amount of free clips. Other features include charting tools, a slide sorter with thumbnail views and drawing tools. Pass Creator 2.0 is a web presentation tool from Passport Designs, Inc. that combines and synchronizes elements by dropping representative icons onto a "Cue Sheet." Buttons can be used to create interactive links, thus, any object can become a button. Generating and reading SMP time code, the program captures video in QuickTime format, plus can save the finished presentation as a QuickTime file. Over 40 transitions are also included for free. Place up to 99 buttons on each screen using TempForShow from Math Inc. Teachers can designate a video window and use routines to save code space. TempForShow imports text files created in a word processor, offers basic drawing tools and animation playback capabilities, and provides 146 wipes. Another program, TempForShow Media Author, offers multimedia authoring and video editing capabilities.

Flowcharts are the vehicles of choice for Author 2.0 from Image Technologies and Amiga Vision from Commodore Business Machines, Inc. In Author, students create screens and windows by dragging those icons out of the parts bin. Zoom in on either, then import text and/or graphics into fields, which can be activated as buttons. Lastly, zoom back out and draw lines between the blocks to indicate relationships. Amiga Vision fully supports Commodore's Interactive Player and includes a built-in database module to manipulate both text and numeric data. Another plus is the placing and positioning of animation brushes with path traversal options. The number of screen transitions has been doubled to 74, and a runtime module is included.

Two companies bill their products as being specifically for a web authoring. Whitney Educational Services and Videodiscovery, Inc. develop VideoWriter and MediaMAX, respectively. MediaMAX combines video images and movies with computer graphics, text, sound, animation, Photo CDs and Quick Time movies. A slide-show creator makes class presentations while a barcode generator prints bar codes and a button-maker produces HyperCard-based lessons. VideoWriter, on the other hand, freezes frames on CLV video files, includes digitized sound and graphics, creates multimedia HyperCard-style buttons and offers new text overlay techniques.

Литература:

1. Brown, H.D. (2004) Teaching by Principles : An Interactive approach to Language Pedagogy. USA : Simon & Shuster Company/A Viacom Company.

2. Сranmer, D. (2009) Motivating High Level Activities for upper intermediate and advanced learners. Pilgrims : Longman.

3. Holme, R. (2006) ESP Ideas : Recipes for teaching professional and academic English. Pilgrims : Longman.