Graham Tritt

Gruetzi tfwlers,

I'm a New Zealander in Switzerland and basically a software developer and database manager working for the Swiss government, with a side interest in English teaching and Toastmasters and ...

This means I pass on information to teachers on things like CALL and egroups and Web site development. Now it is about time our web sites got more interactive and we moved into online course delivery.

Graham Tritt

Something about me on http://www.reap.org.nz/~ftritt/graham.html

I am building a site up on http://tritt.bizland.com/swissenglish/index.htm and also have a "swissenglish" egroup.

I followed links from Alison on http://www.users.on.net/lizroarty/alisonc/liz_8.htm and got to pages from the Australian Learnscope http://www.learnscope.anta.gov.au/ This struck me as brief and useful.

Real Interactivity by Sivasailam Thiagarajan

Interacting with a computer is dumb. Real interactivity goes beyond clicking buttons. Want to know the six secrets of interactivity?

Secret 1. Avoid sounding like an expert. I hate the title "Expert". That prevents people from really interacting with you. They don't tell you anything. They just ask questions and wait for your to pontificate.
Secret 2. Don't write too much. Use short sentences. Don't be afraid to leave some sentences incom
Secret 3. Make a game out of it. In a game, you take a turn and let other players take turns.
Secret 4. Shut up until other people say/write/e-mail something. Please provide feedback and sarcastic remarks directly to me in the LearnScope Forum.
Secret 5. Force people to participate. If necessary, provoke them.
Secret 6. What do you think Secret 6 is? Let me know.

This is a do-it-yourself story. You know about the situation when you tried something interactive and there was a deafening apathy.

Graham participated in our online conference May 11, 2000. He was asked to elaborate on points made regarding role play online. This is his response:

On voice, we were talking about using a radio play, I would also be interested in finding sources e.g. old BBC productions

My suggestion was a script which I developed for a 20-minute Toastmasters session in a club where we have 8 nationalities represented. I have used similar in Business English classes. Called "Hidden Agenda" I tried with short statements to bring out differences between spoken statements and hidden wishes. See this page:

http://tritt.bizland.com/tc_berne/workshop/hiddena/index.htm

Other scripts continue (with the same plus a few new actors). The resulting discussions usually simulate the meeting again rather than analyse the communications!

Another exercise leading to discussions would be on differing English usage. In January I wrote scripts for shoppers, tourists and car drivers based on U.S. / British / European usage differences and dictionaries. It's not online, though.

The requirements for such scripts are defined in http://tritt.bizland.com/tc_berne/workshop/project.htm and our Toastmasters clubs on http://www.district59.de/swiss/

Thanks for all the contributors to the online sessions

Graham, May 15, 2000; permission to quote on request

Updated May 16, 2000