Webquest Esl Efl Students 4c17j

Information inquiry models WebQuest, ThinkQuest, Trackstar, Weblesson, Busca Tesoros.

UTEC ESL/EFL and Technology

What is inquiry? Inquiry (also enquiry) is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. "Inquiry" is defined as "a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge -- seeking information by questioning." The process of inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human senses -- seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Information inquiry models: WebQuest ThinkQuest Trackstar Weblesson Busca Tesoros

Levels of Inquiry

When considering inquiry activities, consider the experiences and skills of your students. There are four levels of inquiry (Callison). Controlled. The teacher chooses the topic and identifies materials that students will use to address their questions. Students are often involved with specific exercises and activities to meet particular learning outcomes. Students often have a specific product. Guided. Students have more flexibility in their resources and activities however they are expected to create a prescribed final product such as a report or presentation.

Levels of Inquiry

Modeled. Students act as apprentice to a coach such as a classroom teacher. The student has flexibility in of topic selection, process, and product. The educators and students work sideby-side engaging in meaningful work. Free. In a free inquiry, students work independently. They explore meaningful questions, examine multiple perspectives, draw conclusions, and choose their own approach for information dissemination.

What Research Says about Inquiry-Based Instruction Inquiry skills require some form of hypothetical-deductive reasoning as in Piagetian formal operations, and students capable of using only concrete operational thought cannot develop an understanding of formal concepts. Students more easily learn observable ideas via inquirybased instruction than ideas considered theoretical. For example, inquiry-based instruction is likely to be effective for showing many students that chemical reaction rates depend on the concentrations of reactants. Most studies ed the collective conclusion that inquiry-based instruction was equal or superior to other instructional modes for students producing higher scores on content achievement tests. Inquiry-based instruction is probably most effective in developing content achievement when the content is more concrete than theoretical.

What Research Says about Inquiry-Based Instruction Recommendations: To emphasize activities centered around operational questions, that students can answer directly via investigation To emphasize activities using materials and situations familiar to students To choose activities for which the teacher believes most of his or her students already have the necessary prerequisite skills and knowledge to succeed. Evidence also suggests that students who are not challenged mentally will not develop their cognitive abilities as much as students who are challenged. On the other hand, if the activities are too easy, the student will not develop better thinking skills. Maximum learning probably occurs when the activities are "just right"--cognitively challenging, but still doable. This implies, at least in theory, a classroom where students may not all be doing the same version of an activity at the same time.

What is a WebQuest? A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University, Department of Educational Technology in February, 1995. Since those beginning days, tens of thousands of teachers have embraced WebQuests as a way to make good use of the internet while engaging their students in the kinds of thinking that the 21st century requires. The model has spread around the world, with special enthusiasm in Brazil, Spain, China, Australia and Holland.

Why WebQuest? WebQuests provide an authentic, technology-rich environment for problem solving, information processing, and collaboration use of Internet-based resources.

Critical attributes of a WebQuest include:

an introduction that sets the stage of the activity a doable, interesting task a set of information resources a clear process guidance and organizational frameworks a conclusion that provides reflection and closure.

WebQuest Theoretical Foundations WebQuests are a learner-centered, drawing on a variety of theories that include the following areas (Lamb & Teclehaimanot, 2005): constructivist philosophy critical and creative thinking, questioning, understanding, and transformational learning authenticity, meaningfulness, and situated learning environments scaffolding cooperative learning motivation, challenge and engaged learning

The WebQuest Design Process Pick a topic that requires understanding, uses the web well, fits curriculum standards, and has been difficult to teach well. Write up the Task in the student template and the Standards and Learners in the teacher template. Complete the Evaluation section in the student template. Duplicate it in the teacher template and add any extra information needed by teachers. Flesh out the Process section by finding a focused set of resources to provide the information needed by learners. Complete the Introduction, Conclusion and Credits section and all other parts of the teacher template. Add graphics where appropriate. WebQuest Creation http://www.eduscapes.com/sessions/travel/create.htm#2

Review the Elements Focus on Introductions. Think about ways to introduce the project. The introduction should motivate, set the stage, and provide background information. Consider situations, pictures, quotes, poems, and songs to establish the environment. Create the Task. The task should be something doable and interesting. For example, it could be a series of questions, summary to be created, problem to be solved, position to be debated, or creative work.. Information Resources. What resources will students need to complete the task? Select specific, appropriate resources such as web documents, experts available via Internet, searchable net databases, books and other documents, and real objects.. Processes. What process will students follow to complete the WebQuest? Will you provide them with a list of activities, step-by-step instructions, or a timeline? Learning Advice. Do you have any other advice for students? Do they need to know how to organize information? Will you give them guiding questions, directions to complete, checklists, timelines, concept maps, cause-effect diagrams, or action plan guidelines? Evaluation. How will students be assessed? Will you use contracts, checklists, or rubrics? Conclusion. How will the project conclude? Will you remind learners about what they've learned or encourage learners to extend the experience?

Online Authoring Systems SiteDescription Filamentality Filamentality is a fill-in-the-blank tool that guides you through picking a topic, searching the Internet, gathering good Internet links, and turning them into online learning activities. is built-in along the way through Mentality Tips. In the end, you'll create a webbased activity you can share with others even if you don't know anything about HTML or serving web pages. Cost: Free. Sample Product: Italian Unification zWebQuest zWebQuest is a web based software for creating WebQuests in a short time. Cost: $0. Sample product: The Fantastic Four and World War III PHPWebQuestPHP Webquest is a Webquest Generator that allows teachers to create webquests without the need of writing any HTML code or using web page editors. The program s images ing, and resizes images is neccesary. A HTML editor is provided in order to format the texts for the pages. Cost: Free. Must be installed on your own server. Sample project: La Catedral de Madrid

Let’s analyze some examples

Resources

http://www.csulb.edu/~acolburn/AETS.htm What Teacher Educators Need to Know about Inquiry-Based Instruction http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2clas What is inquiry-based learning? WebQuests and Web 2.0 http://eduscapes.com/sessions/decade/index

The Art of the Question The questions must be answerable. "What is the poem 'Dream Deferred' based on?" is answerable. "Why did Langston Hughes write it?" may be answerable if such information exists, or if the students have some relevant and defensible opinions. "Why did he choose this particular word in line six?" is not answerable because the only person likely to know such a specific answer is Hughes himself, now deceased. The answer cannot be a simple fact. "In what year was Lincoln killed?" doesn't make for a very compelling project because you can just look it up in any number of books or websites. "What factors caused the assassination attempt?" might be a good project because it will require research, interpretation, and analysis. The answer can't already be known. "What is hip-hop music?" is a bit too straightforward and the kids are not likely to learn much more than they know already. "What musical styles does hip-hop draw from and how?" offers more opportunity for exploration. The questions must have some objective basis for an answer. "Why is the sky blue?" can be answered through research. "Why did God make the sky blue?" cannot because it is a faith-based question. Both are meaningful, valid, real questions, but the latter isn't appropriate for an inquiry-based project. "What have people said about why God made the sky blue?" might be appropriate. Likewise, "Why did the dinosaurs become extinct?" is ultimately unanswerable in that form because no humans were around to know for sure, but "What do scientists believe was the reason for their extinction?" or "What does the evidence suggest about the cause?" will work. Questions based on value judgments don't work for similar reasons. You can't objectively answer "Is Hamlet a better play than Macbeth?" The questions can not be too personal. "Why do I love the poetry of W. B. Yeats?" might inspire some level of internal exploration, but in most cases that's not your most important goal. Get the kids to focus on external research instead.