Gaeilge ar an Ríomhaire - some suggestions

A Support Group has met on alternate Mondays in Scoil Neasáin, Harmonstown. This group has all the usual elements (tips and tricks, ideas, dicussion etc.) but it has the extra touch in that Gaeilge is the medium. Contact me for details. As with all Support Groups, a minimum of 10 participants must have signed up.

Software Titles
· Edco (follow the links to Primary ...Irish) to read reviews of 'Vocabulary Builder Irish' (£17.99), 'Talk Now! Irish' ((29.99) and 'World Talk Irish' (£34.99). These titles are available for viewing in the Education Centre. They also have 'An Rí Santach' (£9.99 for the CD), a title created with Fabula (see below).
· Carroll Education offer 'An Scríobhnóir Óg' from Granada Learning at £78.95. This title is available for viewing in the Education Centre.
· Diskovery (follow the links to ...Primary ...Irish) sell 'An Bíobla Naofa' (Bible in Irish ), 'An Chéad Choiscéim' (First Steps), 'Drochlá Ruairí (Ruairí's Bad Day) (in the Centre), 'Multimedia Flashcards - Irish', 'Seanfhocail ' (Irish Proverbs) and 'Talk Now Learn Irish '.
· Tá leagan Gaeilge de 'ClarisWorks v4' ar fáil don Apple Mac (InTouch, June 1998). Click here for more details.

Websites:
· Proceedings of the Digiscoil Conference. The report itself can be downloaded as a Word document from http://www.digiscoil.ie/report1_e.doc
· ScoilNet Resources in the classroom -follow the links to ...Teachers ...Primary ...Gaeilge and choose Junior classes or Senior classes, then click on the resource of your choice.
· Scoilnet has links to many resource sites - follow the path as above, but click on the Links button on the bottom.
· Fabula is free software that can be downloaded from http://www.fabula.eu.org/ . As the file is quite big, it may also be purchased on CD from EdCo at 1890 445577. The programme is presently being re-engineered.
· TG4 has news and - Interactive Games with Hiúdaí
· BBC Northern Ireland has a section on their website devoted to Irish Language, Culture and News
· GaelOidNet is a must for the bunscoileanna lán-Ghaeilge
· Gaeilge ar an Ghréasán has hundreds of links
· A Fócloir can be accessed at http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/foclora/riomhaire.html 
· The Vif@x programme (from Maynooth College) runs in conjunction with TG4. Email Language.Centre@may.ie

The following group of website links were provided by my colleague, Jim McGee:


Resources:
Download SeanChló Dubh. This font is freeware to schools. It can be downloaded as a Zip file from http://members.nbci.com/Hilnscot/Scottish/Downloads.htm . 'Cló Gaelach' is a similar font.

Some tips:

Put in the sine fadas using ALTGR + the vowel.

Customise Word etc. so that menu buttons and items appear 'as gaeilge' ...more (archived in .pdf format)

More Fonts at UCC (http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/academic/faculties/arts/celtic/mi.html): click on the 'sean chló' link at the bottom of the page. You will be presented with about 20 files - click on 'leighme.htm' to see what each does.

Irish Spellings in Microsoft Word are no longer a problem. Download an Irish spellchecker from http://www.gaelspell.com/. 

Remember to turn off the Autotext feature in Word, otherwise 'i munscoil' will appear as 'I mbunscoil' (Undo also leaves it as 'i').

A more detailed dictionary (an online version of Fiontar) can be accessed at http://www.dcu.ie/fiontar/further/btfiontar/BTFiontar-26.html (Béarla go Gaeilge) or http://www.dcu.ie/fiontar/further/btfiontar/BTFiontar-3.html (Gaeilge go Béarla)

There are lots of resources at http://www.fainne.org/ .

My thanks to Shane and Deirbhle, for their contributions to the above.

For a research thesis, have a look at http://www.wtc.ie/ictresources/research.htm. This is a Master's dissertation by my ICT Advisor colleague in Waterford, John Murray. The titles is "The advantages of using the Internet as a teaching and learning tool for second-language learning in relation to the Irish language.". The Abstract reads: The broadly based objective of this report is to attempt to create a picture of the impact of a fast and potentially profound impact of the Internet in the teaching of Irish. Another objective is to attempt to identify potential and actual obstacles to the use of the Internet in the teaching of Irish. 

In this report I first provide a brief history of efforts to revive the Irish language within the Irish school system and define why the learning of Irish in Ireland's school system should be regarded, for the majority of students, as second-language learning. I then proceed to discuss some of the pedagogical issues associated with second-language teaching and learning and discuss how these could be addressed using ICT. 

Finally, I critically evaluate the work being done in relation to the teaching and learning of the Irish language in relation to ICT developments, particularly with regard to the Internet, in the Irish Republic."

Back to ICT homepage (c) David Kearney, 2001 Back to Education Centre homepage