Texts - Digital Texts

<b> Forum for the discussion on ESL/EFL textbooks </b>

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stremblay
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:49 pm

Texts - Digital Texts

Post by stremblay » Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:04 pm

In my opinion, print material is no longer as interesting as it was. However, I don't think that education should only depend on the use of ICT's. Indeed, ICT's are not useful at any time in any class. In fact, I believe that communication and information technologies are great tools for English teachers. On one hand, teachers can choose from a variety of activities in English on the internet and can have their students read stories that are more interactive and illustrated. On the other hand, digital texts of any kinds are easily accessible to students and teachers have to be more careful because plagiarism becomes a more frequent issue. In brief, I think that the program should integrate more ICT's while teachers should remain diligent with students who use them.

aniaLL
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:12 pm

Post by aniaLL » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:00 pm

Nowadays, we have an easy access to digital texts. With the technology touting such attrative benefits, digital books continue to gain traction in every segment of the publishing market. Digital texts can be delivered almost instantly. The are transported to you faster than overnight shipping: in minutes or in seconds. Moreover, they are easily updatable for adding information. Digital texts are also environmentally friendly, they save trasport fees and pollution associated with shipping.In ESL classroom texts posted online encourage comments, corrections, and feedback -- which eliminates mistakes and improves accuracy. I do agree that we should not only rely on ICTs. In ESL classroom using technology should be controlled by teachers to avoid plagiarism.

buniac1
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:45 am

Post by buniac1 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:03 pm

I think you are right. Digital texts are much more interesting for students. They are able to multi task while they learn. Not only they have access to digital texts, but they are able to use their resources to get a better understanding of notions, use their friends online without disturbing your fellow neighbor and get in touch with several online communities. Texts can be discussed on forums, as we do right now. Since interpretation of texts are not done the same way by each individual, it seems to me like forums are a good way of sharing ideas. Not only they can practice their writing skills, but they also practice their overall English skills with an online experience. So many softwares exists right now, it is only up to the teaching to be able to focus on the task to be done and allow students to use their critical judgement concerning the web and digital texts.

JEEPY
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:56 pm

Post by JEEPY » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:05 pm

Stremblay, you always ask relevant questions and I love it. I agreed with you, we should include more and more ICT in our teaching profession. Also, I believe that students get easily bored with any "old-school" material. They now live in an electronic world, they are the "génération bouton" and at some point, we have to adapt. The internet has so many information, texts and everything, we have to use those. and when we evaluate the reading skills, we don'T have to assess a shakespearian text, we can only asses their comprehension of whatever is written in good English. So what do you guys thunk about the integration of ICTs in classrooms?

claudie.ars
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:03 am

Post by claudie.ars » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:13 pm

Online texts can be great to use with children because it is more interactive. Children need to be involved in their learning and do not want to be passive anymore. As other said, it is easy for the teacher to find texts on the internet and moreover it can be texts on any possible subject. However, let's not forget that students also need to be able to concentrate on a text written in black on a white normal sheet. Yes, everything can be found on the web but we will always have contracts to read and sign, or text to read on a medicine bottle. School must be appealing to students but it is also important to keep some conventional work and there are some nice school textbooks out there.

amrif317
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:48 pm

Post by amrif317 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:14 pm

Digital texts are a great thing to use in today's classrooms. We have to face it, this generation of students is very technology savvy and oriented. It's only going to increase with time and the next generations to come. While I don't think that we should eliminate the use of textbooks any time soon, I do think that it's important to use technology in a classroom. It is interesting for the students, and the vast amount of material and selection being offered is becoming more and more impressive. I think it's important not to abuse technology in class, but used correctly it's a great thing. Make sure to set up rules and guidelines.

karineESLstudent
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Post by karineESLstudent » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:18 pm

I think it's impossible to teach only with material found on the web and not handing in hard copies of the texts and the activity sheets. Is there any school where all the classes are equiped with computers for every students? No! However, what can be done is having students consult the teacher's blog for links related to the topic seen in class, or doing a forum activity as we are doing now ;) The use of ICT can also be good for the teacher itself, because it's an easy way to find interesting material and authentic texts. But again, as teacher you have to print this material for the students, unless you are doing a computer lab period with your students...

jetar
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:45 pm

Post by jetar » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:25 pm

I think that digital texts can be meaningful complementary materials. There are interesting texts in ESL textbooks approved by the MELS. Nevertheless, I think that it is always good when teachers bring additional materials, and digital texts are a good option. Digital texts can enable teachers to personalize their teaching, and the students always like to "get out" of the textbook. With digital texts, teachers can introduce topics that are really up to date. Moreover, there are tones of them and they are easy to access, so teachers can adapt their teaching according to their students' interests.

Nevertheless, there are always disadvantages associated with the use of ICTs such as plagerism, waste of time, technical problems, access to ICTs in schools, etc. But I think that most of these risks can be managed.

sam17
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Location: Quebec
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Post by sam17 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:33 pm

I believe using digital texts is useful in many ways. However, I agree with most of you in the sense that texts need to be in front of us on paper to be able to truly process the information adequately. When we read on the computer, it can also become quite a hastle and give headaches because the eye is simply not supposed to concentrate on a computer screen for so long. It is interesting for students to vary the ways in which we teach. This way, it will be much more interesting and they will like the classes more. Digital texts are part of our lives and we must recognize that they are useful teching tools. They are also ecofriendly and money saving tools!

melgaut
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:32 pm

Digital text

Post by melgaut » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:39 pm

Yes ICTs are nowadays in our everyday life. But should we only use digital texts in our ESL classroom? No, I don't think so. Students need to be able to highlight and work with something they can touch. Yes, it can be more interesting to read on the internet. But not all the materials should be online. Ok lets suppose that you want to read a text together: how can you hear or not be distracted when you have many computers around you? How will you organize de classroom? You also have to do discipline and it may be very difficult if there are computers all around the classroom. There is also the question about copying the information. Can you really control that...-Ipad? Maybe.-
it is easier and quicker to find a paper than open the computer and find where it is, under what name etc. According to me, we should include ICTs in our classroom but with moderation. We should use it to review and reinforce already acquired knowledge.

AndreAnn
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:15 pm

Post by AndreAnn » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:47 pm

I think that digital texts are better for tyounger learners. Teenagers need to have concrete material and they are also harder to control in an computer environment. Teens need to be encouraged to read printed texts since they are already using the computer. Arousing their intererst for books such as twilight, Harry Potter and cartoons will enable them to have material to read on the bus, in the car and when they are not around a computer. I think that digital stories are also important but it is better just to show them the possibilities and places where they can find them. Teens like to have freedonm of choice so by showing them the sites and places to find these stories you are opening the door for curiosity.

jeffreyrodrigue
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:39 pm

Post subject: Texts - Digital Texts

Post by jeffreyrodrigue » Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:58 pm

I think that digital texts are clearly the future and are a lot more interesting than traditional paper printed literature. By using ICTs teachers broaden their scope of possibilities because there are so much more things available on the internet. The information pool is always growing and potential is practically limitless. But, regardless there are times where paper is better. Because, the internet is a double-edged knife; there is a lot of very good things but also a lot of things we don’t want students to see. It becomes hard to controlled sometimes what they will come in contact with so that’s why it needs to be concrete and precise activities on the computer.

cathjean
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:08 pm

Post by cathjean » Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:38 pm

I agree with all of you, we can really find more and more things on internet that ca n be relevant for our students. Digital books are simply awesome. We can play with it and even invent some ourselves with power point. This is what I love about ICT in a classroom, we can make our own handouts our own books and create lots of other classroom material that students needs. Digital books are a fun way to introduce reading to elementary cycle 1 students. They understand better because the images are bigger and with a lot of digital stories they can click on the word to mae the image that goes with it moves.
Do you all think that paper is old school and that teachers should all start to think about integrating technology as a tool to teach?

nicolasbrunette
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Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:38 pm

Post by nicolasbrunette » Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:23 pm

We have to understand that we can’t stop the development of technologies. Regarding this, it would be a good idea for future teachers to learn what could be useful in a classroom. Digital texts are surely something we have to use. They can be interactive, transformed or adapted to the level of our students. Students are now used to using computers, we should use it as an advantage. Like it was mentioned in a previous post, digital text may be a way of motivating the students to read texts. Since they are so easily bored, we may have to adapt our way to teach.

cyndie28
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Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:43 pm

Post by cyndie28 » Thu Feb 24, 2011 3:09 pm

I think that having the opportunity to use digital text is an excellent tool for students to learn in a new way and maybe faster than with regular print texts. Since digital texts can also be read by a narrator, it means that students can learn how to pronounce a word when they read it, it can also be a listening tool if the students don’t want to look at a movie or listen to tapes, they can choose from a bigger variety of books and then just press play and they can enjoy the book that they wanted and listen to it. Print book will of course always be necessary for reading but digital texts provide both listening and reading, why not switch to this technology?

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