The URL of the Website is:

http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/modlang/german-fernsehen/

Pedagogic Foundation  of this Website:

The purpose of this website is to set up a user-friendly integrated platform, where the students can both practice and get more information without getting lost. I believe that this format can also be used for other exercises.

There are many invaluable resources on the web. International TV and radio stations' web based newscasts are an excellent example. They are authentic and up to date. Often they are archived and can be retrieved by dates or keywords. Many TV or radio websites have read-along texts for their webcasts. If we effectively use them, we can significantly enrich our language classes.

Webcasts are short clips. Unlike live broadcasts, archived webcasts can be viewed repeatedly. If there are read-along texts, students can overcome initial anxiety and frustration by read the corresponding texts. This way, they will be encouraged to listen to authentic and up-to-date language materials.

In addition to webcasts and read-along texts, the interactive exercises also contain embedded explanations of new terms and expressions, as well as online tools such as search engine and dictionary as additional learning aids. I put them together, and allow the found information to display on the left. Click here to see an example. 

The interactive listening exercises take advantage of simple and interactive feature of the JavaScript, which allow students to get instant feedback on their listening comprehension. They are not only informed if their understanding was  correct or incorrect but also why it was correct or wrong. If their answers are incorrect, the students can choose to listen once or more times again.

Description of the Design of the Website:

This website has two columns. Click here to see an example. 

The left column has two rows containing a menu of webcasts and a collection of links to German, Austrian, and Swiss TV and radio stations online.

The right column displays exercises of selected webcasts. These exercises can be selected from the menu of webcasts on the top of the left column. Some new and unfamiliar terms in the exercises are hyper linked to web pages that will give more information on these terms, which will be displayed on the bottom of the left column.

On the bottom of the right column, there are a LEO Englsih<->German dictionary and an Alta Vista search engine. The search results will be displayed on the bottom row of the left column.
 

What Can the Students Do and Achieve with this Website:

The students can select a topic of news, listen to selected webcasts, choose to read or not read the associated scripts, then answer the questions by selecting one of the four statements, which they consider the correct answer. 

The exercises have the nice feature of instant feedback. It does not simply tell students if their choices are right or wrong, rather explains them why these selections are correct or incorrect. Click here to see an example. 

If they don't understand some terms in the webcasts and if the terms are in a different color, they can click on these terms and find more information on the terms. If the terms are not differently colored, the students can put the terms in the inquiry field of LEO Englsih<->German dictionary and search for an English equivalent or put it in the inquiry field of Alta Vista search engine for more web pages on that term. The results will appear on the left window and not interrupt the work the students are engaged in.

The students can check the links on the left window and listen to more webcasts off a number of German, Austrian, and Swiss TV and radio stations online. 
 

System Requirements:

The users must have a latest web browser that supports Javascript forms and frames. Click here to see an example.

To view webcasts that are embedded in the exercises on the right column, the students must have a computer with RealVideo player pre-installed. If the RealVideo player has not already been installed, the students can click here to download a free copy of  G2 version of RealVideo from Real.com. 

To view webcasts in formats other than RealVideo on the left window, video players or plugins for those formats must also be installed. If the required video players or plugins have not been installed, the students can click the icons of the required video players to download a free copy of them.

The website works best on a larger monitor with resolution of 800x600 or larger.
 

Invitation to Collaboration on this Project

Why do I need help?
The pedagogical value of this website is obvious. Many German teachers have expressed their gratitude and appreciation of the work done. However, this website is still experimental because it only contains a small number of exercises. In order for German courses at different level to use German webcasts on a platform like this, I need more German  teachers to work with me to design a fairly good number of listening comprehension exercises for different levels of German courses.

How can German teachers help?
German teachers can choose a number of newscasts, watch these webcasts, and design questions and answers corresponding to individual newscasts.

Selection of newscasts.  To choose a number of newscasts, the participants can go to Bayrischer Rundfunk online, go down to the bottom of the page, click on Archiv, and search for the newscasts by dates or keyword.   Before starting watching newscasts and designing questions and answers, each German teacher should cut and paste the URLs of selected newscasts in a list, and submit the  list along with the dates and titles of the selected newscasts by email: pjy2@po.cwru.edu  for approval. The purpose of this approval is to avoid duplicated efforts.

Watching newscasts and designing questions and answers. This represents the main work of individual German teachers in this collaborative project. The answers to each of four statements for each newscast must contain both affirmative or negative information and a brief explanation of this information.

Do German teachers need to write JavaScript?
The participating German teachers needn't worry about writing Javascript for the interactive exercises.  The coordinator of this project will put all exercises together.
 

Do German teachers get credits and compensations for their participation?
All participating German teachers will be credited for the work they have done in this project.  However,  all works done are, at this stage, on a  volunteer basis. I am  searching for  eventual funding sources for this project.