Report on Irish Legends Project

As part of its IT2000 initiative to infuse schools in Ireland with good ICT practices the National Centre for Technology in Education has launched SIP…a programme in which some schools have been chosen to produce exemplars in good ICT practice . This is one of the projects being undertaken in the following school.

Make sure that sufficient sources are available for children to work from, books,comics , reference CDs,past projects and Internet sites.

This was generally done in pupils’ copies or workbooks and in longhand. The idea of neat handwriting and pride in one’s own penmanship was emphasized and children warned of the myth that “ children’s handwriting becomes sloppy as a result of using computers.” Children were encouraged to use their own words rather that transcribe what they found in books .(.Difficult). A rule I made was that if a pupil couldn’t explain a word he or she used , then he or she had to rewrite.

Microsoft word was used as a word processor, reluctantly because it is not a child friendly word processor but it would be easier later to insert into webpages or copy and paste text. I would have preferred to use Creative Writer2 but its file format is unusual. A practical point here is filenames . I told each pupil to call the file L(name) so that the files could be easily accessed from the network. E.g If your name was Mark then the filename you used for your story was LMARK.

The stories were typed into the computer . they were corrected, spell checked etc. A difficulty with the spell checker was its ignorance of Irish names and placenames and its bias towards American spelling.

Pupils were told that only their own artwork would appear on the webpages. They all made their own artwork which consisted of the following :

3. A wire sculpture depicting some aspect of the legend( wire covered with papier mache).

Pupils were shown how to use scanning software . One pupil was taught how to scan and he/she passed on the skill. Note: They were shown how to make sure that the graphic was saved as a JPEG. (This is important for teachers as BMPs take up too much memory and because JPEGs are acceptable on the WWW.)

The software chosen for making the website was Netscape Composer for the following reasons:

The webpages were printed out , photocopied and collated . We used a binding machine to bind the booklet and every pupil had a booklet to bring home.

Pupils were familiar with Hyperstudio and input the text and graphics into a stack format. They were shown how to make links with buttons and how to put sound with buttons. They were also shown how to have transitions when moving from one card to another.

· Pupils enjoyed reading about their own and other culture’s legends.One pupil remaked having been motivated to read “Irish Sagas and legends” ,”that was the best book I ever read, could I keep it for another while.” Sometimes when I asked pupils to take out their Legends booklet they some of them would say “mine is at home , my mammy/daddy/grandad is reading it “.They would say it with pride.

· Pupils learned to draft and redraft, spellcheck , change fonts, cut and paste text and the skills of word processing.

· Pupils enhanced their self esteem by publishing on the WWW. Emails arrived commenting on the work they had done.

· At the end of the project we had an open day and parents were invited along with others to see the work.The broad knowledge acquired as a result of an integrated ICT project was amazing particularly when discussing the legends with strangers

· Every family attending the school was given a CD with all of the SIP projects. Some of the children who hadn’t a PC at home would bring the CD to a friend’s house or relative’s house where there was a PC and show it off there.

1. Open Netscape communicator and go to New page in the file menu. Choose blank page from the sub menu and Composer will replace the browser. You now have a WYSIWYG webdesign blank page. Below is a picture of the toolbar.

2. Click on the table icon. You could also go to the insert menu and insert table. The following menu will appear.

6.Decide what percentage of the page the table will fill….horizontally. I have picked 80%.

7.Decide whether you want equal column widths or not. If not the column widths will be moveable depending on the content.

8.Decide if you want a colour background for your table. If you click on the use colour then a colour menu appears.

9.Click on OK when you are happy with the design.(It may be changed afterwards anyway).

It will change depending on what is inserted into the table. If you click in a cell a cursor appears and you can input text. The text can then be selected and font and size changed as usual. An image may also be inserted into a cell by going to the composer toolbar and clicking on the image icon . You will be asked to choose an image file .

When you insert the image the cell size may change to accomodate the image. However if you click on the image again you may change the dimensions of the image in the image menu.

Below is the table above with an image added . I just left the image in its original size. If I had chosen not to have equal columns then I could put text in the cell

10. When you are happy with your page including the table you must click on the save icon . Then you can click on the preview icon and you will see the page as it would appear on the WWW.

Tables may be used for whatever purpose you decide. They are a neat way of making an index, or of containing graphics, or of putting in text by using one column.

1.In Netscape Browser go to file menu and go to edit page.(This opens Netscape Composer,if you’re not in it already.)

3. To delete a row or a column go to edit menu,delete table and then submenu delete row or column.

4. To change table properties go to Format menu and click on Table properties…note you must click somewhere in the table first or that part of the sub menu will not appear.

Oisin in Tir na nOg by Amie Dooley

                       Oisin     in    Tir   na     nOg
One   morning   Fionn   Mac    Cumhaill    and   the   Fianna   were    out    hunting   near   the   lakes   of   Killarney.Oisin,   the   son of Fionn,   was   with   them.They    heard   a   noise,    they   thought   it was a   deer.
         Out     came    a   beautiful   princess riding on a beautiful   white horse.She   wore a purple silk dress and a   crown on her head.She had   long beautiful golden   hair.Fionn   Mac Cumhaill     went up to her and asked “ what is your name.” My” name is Niamh Chinn Oir.,”She said.”I am the daughter of the king of Tir na nOg.I have come   to ask Oisin to return there with me.”
          “Why should I leave this beautiful land   of   Ireland and go away with you.”Oisin   asked her.”Because   in my   country there is no pain, no death, no ageing.The people are young   and   strong and beautiful   for ever.And   I   am in love   with you.Now   come with me to Tir na nOg   and   I   will be   your   wife.”Oisin said”yes.I   shall go away   with you.
        Fionn was sad   to see his   son   leave but he wished him well.Oisin climbed on the   back of the white horse and they galloped across   the sea   to Tir na nOg.
                Oisin and   Niamh lived there for three hundred   years.Oisin   was sad because he   wanted to   see Fionn and the   Fianna   and his homeland   again.Niamh   agreed that Oisin   should visit Ireland one more time.Niamh   told him   not to let his   feet    touch the ground.Because   we   shall not see each other again.Oisin   got on the white horse.The horse carried   him back to Ireland.But Ireland had   changed.Fionn and the Fianna   were   long dead.
       Oisin    decided   to return to Tir na nOg.On   his way back he passed through Gleann na Smol.There he saw some men trying to lift a heavy   rock.He bent   down to help them lift   the heavy   rock.While he help them the strap of the   saddle snapped.Oisin fell to the ground.The two men looked at him. A big change came over Oisin.He turn old and grey.He was three hundred years old.
     The white horse galloped   back to Tir na nOg.The people brought Oisin to st. Patrick, who was preaching in Ireland at that time.Oisin told        the Saint all about Fionn   and the Fianna.He told them about Niamh   and life in Tir na nOg.After all the stories,St.Patrick baptised Oisin.Later that day Oisin died.
             By   Amie   Dooley.

Click here to return to Legends Index

6. Homepage of Scoilnet , the Irish Schoolnet…see the Culture section,Primary.