General introduction on the Raw Carrots programmes

   The purpose of this site is to present some original and innovating lesson plan models to introduce computer technology into pedagogy. These models for teachers are given as 'skeletons' that will embed teachers' personal data (texts, still pictures, sounds, videos...).



BEFORE YOU START

Prepare some settings in your Windows Notepad.
Start/ Execute / Notepad or Open Accessories / Notepad
In the Format menu, tick Automatic Return Carriage at the end of the line and choose Font size 10, face Arial Narrow (if possible).
You will later view the source code of the template with this tool, with greater comfort.

RESOURCES

The templates were originally created by Jean Pierre Palasse, teacher on information technology for language teaching at the University of Burgundy, France, within the framework of a European Comenius project. Their main goal is to foster learning foreign languages but they can be used for teaching activities that need showing multimedia resources on various topics.
The templates can be adapted to a non commercial usage in the world of education and any first publication on the internet network needs an approval by mail.
The templates (about 25 computer model plans) are presented both as individual computer lab activities and as computer assisted lessons for a teacher using a video projector in his classroom. In that case, only one computer is enough for collective viewing. The size of texts and images is adapted to the collective project.
No specific tools are required to build up a sequence : just the template and the Internet Explorer browser with normal settings, preferably viewed in a 1024/768 pixel sized window.

Examples of templates are presented on this web site :
http://comenius.fc-tic.net/An/AnSeDePa.htm
A general introduction of the templates is to be found here :
http://comenius.fc-tic.net/An/introduction.htm

INTRODUCE YOUR OWN WORDS

Generally speaking, the Raw Carrots concept is based on the use of an html web page that includes a data base and javascripts codes.
The best thing to do is to explore the different models (live from the server) and download the templates of your choice if you want to reproduce an activity that could fit into a similar presentation. Expand the files of each template in a different folder every time you want to produce an exercise. Look for the _Starthere.htm programme and explore the heart of other htm pages with a righ click. The javascripts codes, necessary for the management of an interactive presentation, must not be blocked by the browser settings refusing popup windows. Next to the engine (on top of it), in the source code, you will find a data base with specific keywords where teachers will write their data. These data will be updated in the Windows Notepad processor showing the source code.
Example : TitleOfdocument = "A visit of Paris"
NameofPicture1 = "eiffeltower.jpg"
You may not fill in all the data base keyword values and keep some keywords void (if no picture): example : NameofPicture4 = " "

PREPARATION

You will have to prepare your multimedia files (gif or jpg pictures, mp3 sounds...) linked to the project and place them in the same folder as the template files downloaded from the server. Words will be directly typed in the data base IN A CONTINUOUS UNENDING LINE and web links will be Copied/Pasted behind the specific keyword : example WebLink3 = "http://www..."
Quote marks are compulsory to give the limit BEFORE and AFTER each data after the = sign. You may not add nor erase a keyword.
If you wish to give space to your text, add a <BR> code (generally after a full stop).

STUDY AN EXAMPLE

Let us take a first example : the GUESSIT programme.
The goal here is to produce a text to be viewed by the students in the classroom with a video projector and to explore and discuss new ideas or sum up ideas already viewed in a preceding lesson. You will find missing words on the screen to be completed orally and a click/drag/drop type of exercice as well as two oral expression Sum Up activities.

http://comenius.fc-tic.net/An/guessit/guessit.htm (in English)
http://comenius.fc-tic.net/Fr/devoirs/devine/devine.htm (in French)

The source file looks or could look like this :
// ///////////////// AUTHOR /////////////////////
Author="JP Palasse"

DocumentOrigin = "http://www.site_of_origin.edu"

// /////////// Fill in missing words : place a star *before all words to place in a bank //////////////
mytext= "here the words of my text... Today's lesson is on Apartheid. <BR> Apartheid consisted of numerous laws that allowed the ruling white minority in South Africa to segregate, exploit and terrorize a vast majority of the population: Africans, mostly, but also Asians and Coloureds - people of mixed race. In white-ruled South Africa, black people were denied basic human and political rights. Their labour was exploited, their lives segregated... The hero who brought freedom back to South Africans was Mandela. Nelson Mandela was born on July 18th, 1918 in Transkei. He turned 88 years old last July 2006."

This text is plain : so, to introduce an interactive word, place a star before it and # after it :
example *minority#majority
Choose other words to carry on.

PLACE YOUR DATA REPLACING MINE

Author="Here your name"
DocumentOrigin = "Original text written by..."
mytext= " "

Beware to write a medium sized continuous text (~200 or 300 words), save and start the programme again. If the text is plain, the computer will show your text and decide which words will be wiped out. I REPEAT : If you want to choose yourself which words to erase, just put a star in front of each chosen word to mark it up : *word1 *word2 etc... If you want to enrich the interactivity, you may use more codes like #wrong_word et =synonym behind the starred word. Study the pdf help file.
Save the updated data as an htm page.
THAT IS ALL.

OTHER SOLUTION FOR TEMPLATES WITH HIDDEN CODE

Let us take a second example : a lesson for a computer lab activity where the students will answer open questions with their own words and the system will analyse and evaluate their answers on the spot. Make a try :

http://comenius.fc-tic.net/An/testaustralie/myworksheet.htm

This time, the data base is extracted from the engine programme to be hidden from the students. You need a specific tool to fill in the data base : it is called AideCreation.htm : it is a fill in form web page.

http://comenius.fc-tic.net/An/testaustralie/AideCreation.htm

Click on 'get data back' to view the contents of the original data of this programme.

If you change some data, you will have to update the base. At the very bottom of the form, you will click on 'Produce the source code' : then you will see a code page in your Internet browser. By a right click on the middle of this code, show source code and save this new source page as 'view.gif' in the same folder as the rest of the template files on your hard disk. Really force the name as view.gif even though it is not an image.

These are the main procedures to produce interactive activities with Raw Carrots templates.
If you want to learn more, please contact...

jppalasse @yahoo.fr