Cyber English

Cyberenglish: Computers as Common Ground
Ted Nellen, Dawn Hogue and Patricia Schulze

Several years ago I stumbled on Ted Nellen’s website for his CyberEnglish class. I was fascinated by the idea of using technology seamlessly for all aspects of language arts. During this panel presentation, I was able to see two different CyberEnglish classrooms using technology for different purposes.

Mr. Nellen’s class begins with a 10 minute whole group meeting. During this time they discuss the agenda of work, review previous work for grammar and revision needs, and assign new projects. Generally students have at least three separate projects to be working on. The students need to manage their time effectively to complete these projects. The classroom has at least one computer per student, an interactive whiteboard, printers, scanners and a projector. Mr. Nellen believes that the extensive use of technology enhances his students’ quality of work and their engagement in the work. He presented several studies to support this. Web-based content and publication helps students think of text in new ways through the use of links and multi-media. In a CyberEnglish classroom there is shared authority between teacher and student, more freedom and creativity, and a de-centering of text. The style of research is changing in the world through the use of email, MUDs, and Moos. Researchers can instantly connect with experts and other classrooms.

Cyber English: The Practice

Ms. Hogue’s purpose of using technology with students is to create connections. She uses blogs as personal journals and expects students to write and respond to each other. She showed several examples of her students’ blogs and included the basics of how to set up a blog along with assignment criteria.
Cyber Engligh 9

Here is another Cyber English classroom
Cybercomp 10

A nice article by the three presentors, published by NCTE
CyberEnglish