Xemplar StarTower

Peter Ruthven-Stuart HokurikuUniversity

This article will describe how toacquire and use 'authoring software' made by Xemplar Star Tower. Unlike normalauthoring software, that are programs in themselves, Xemplar Star Tower is aseries of online educational activities that can be found within Apple UK's website. Although the activities on this site are designed for children whosefirst language is English, there are four reasons why this site is of interestto teachers of English as a second or foreign language. Firstly, accompanyingseveral of the activities is an authoring tool that allows teachers to createtheir own activities. Secondly, these activities can be accessed and created onany computer with a fourth-generation internet browser (Netscape 4+ or Explorer4+), regardless of system. This means that files can be saved and distributedon a disk; an internet connection is not necessary. Thirdly, there is no chargeto download the authoring tools from Apple UK's site. A final reason why thissite is of interest to teachers is that although the files are made with DHTMLand Java scripts, no knowledge of these computer languages is required toproduce the activities. At present, there are ten different activities on theXemplar site. All of the material can be downloaded and used offline. Of theten, four come with an HTML file which when opened in a browser will allow youto create your own activity files. Of these four, perhaps the most useful for ateacher of English, is the activity called 'worddrop'. Figure 1 above shows an example of a worddrop activity. Worddrop isessentially a cloze type exercise in which the student drags words from theleft of the screen to appropriate places in a text. The students can check tosee how many words are correct. Correct words turn green, and incorrect onesturn red. The incorrect words can be dragged to the 'word bin' at the right ofthe screen. There is also a help button, which provides instructions to thestudent.

The procedure for acquiring therelevant worddrop files and creating ones own worddrop activities are explainedin the nine steps below:

1. Before accessing the Xemplar web site, you should create a new folder in which to place the files that you are about to download. This folder can be called anything, for example, 'Startower'. Also, ensure that you have a decompression tool that can open zip files.
2. Access the Xemplar web site; either go to their home page <www.apple.com/uk /educational/schools/startower/xstartower/st artup/finish.htm> and work your way through to the download page, or go straight to the download page <www.apple.com/uk/educational/schools/sta rtower/xstartower/teacher/download.htm>.
3. Once at the download page, first download the 'global' folder. To do this click on 'global.zip'. This folder is not essential, but Figure 1: A Worddrop activity 18 it contains a number of 'gifs' which are used by worddrop when offline. Place the decompressed 'global' folder into the folder created in step 1.
4. Next, download the 'worddrop' folder by clicking on 'worddrop.zip'. Place the decompressed 'worddrop' folder into the folder created in step 1. You can now go offline.
5. The worddrop folder, when open, should look something like figure two. To try out some of the tasks open the 'index.htm' file with your web browser.
6. Before you create your own files make a new folder within the worddrop folder. Hierarchically, it should be directly below the 'worddrop' folder. Then, open a text editor in which to save the HTML that you will create in the next step.
7. To create your own worddrop activity click open the 'adult.htm' file. Here you will be faced with a choice of trying some of the activities, creating your own activity, or creating a menu. Clicking on 'Files Creator' will open the 'create.htm' file. Having prepared a text in a word processor, copy this text into the relevant text box in the 'create.htm' file. The words or phrases that are to be made into blanks are indicated by placing them in square brackets.
8. Once this is done click on 'create file', and then some HTML text appears to the right of the screen. This should then be copied and pasted to the text editor. Save this text file in the folder created in step 7.
9. Your activity is now complete. To do the activity, open the file in a web browser.

The worddrop folder as downloadedfrom the Xemplar site is only about 240 K, and thus even if other files areadded it is possible to save the worddrop folder on a floppy disk which can bedistributed to students. Alternatively, it can be uploaded to a web site.

To make an even more professionallooking product it is possible to create a menu to help students negotiatearound your tasks. To do this open the 'adult.htm' file in a web browser andthen click on 'Menu Maker'. For readers that can manipulate HTML, it ispossible to make a number of changes to the files to further enhance theactivities. Furthermore, because of its ease of use it is even possible to givethe whole worddrop folder to students and have them create their own tasks foreach other.

Thus with Worddrop the creation ofprofessional looking language learning activities is free and simple. What ismore, the activities can be easily distributed to students via the internet oron floppy disks, without the necessity of acquiring special software.

Readers who are interested inStar Tower and Worddrop can also find some examples of worddrop activities onthe author's web site. <http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~peterr-s/> as well as the Apple UK site.