ELT QuestGarden -Make a WebQuest (Part I)

Today's Website~ 

●  QuestGarden

QuestGarden

What is it about?

●  It is an online authoring tool for you to create a high quality WebQuest easily and

    quickly.

●  It provides prompts, guides and examples for each step of the process.  Also, criterion

    (checkpoints) for each process are provided for you to check your Webquest.

●  You can also embed or attach images, documents, and worksheets.

Why is the content good for language learning?

●  Users can work collaboratively.  The can make a WebQuest together and edit or revise

    it at home respectively.  Users are involved in the negotiation of meanings when making

    the WebQuest together.

●  Users (authors, or teachers) are encouraged to comment on each other's work, to

    share images and links, or build new Webquests on existing ones in their own

    community.

●  Users can modify the content written by another member of the community according

    to their needs and use it with their own students.  Attribution to the first author is

    maintained, and they will be notified when their work is mortified or improved.

●  The teacher can use it to create structured activities for students to solve the real

    world problems.

●  The criterion provided help the teachers to learn how to make tasks with good

    quality for learners to construct their language learning process with their own

    experience.

How might you use it in a language teaching context?  

●  This tool is good for language teachers or teachers with specific purposes.  It is good

    for teacher trainers to create a community for teacher trainees to work collaboratively

    to build their own WebQuests according to students' need.  

●  The teacher trainers can check each group's process and leave comments (other

     groups can see the comments and learn something from them).  The trainees are 

     encouraged to visit their peers' WebQuest and comment on their peers' tasks. 

●  Once they finish their WebQuest, the teacher trainers can have the whole class to 

    look at their work and give them some suggestions.   The Webquests can be 

    modified and revised.  They could be wonderful resources for language teachers.

Limitations~

  

●  It only offers 30-day Free Trial accounts.

●  The quality of some WebQuests is not stable.  The teacher needs to modified before

    using them.

●  Not sure if it could be used in another languages.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Example~Build Our Own WebQuest

●  Create your community (group).  'ET966-ICT in ELT-MA Option Module 2011'

    is created by our ICT tutor Ms. Tilly Harrison.  We had to log in and start to

    build our own WebQuest in class.  

   Below is the link of our work (my classmate Sarah and I worked collaboratively 

   in class:  Our WebQuest-Welcome to Taiwan

ET966-ICT in ELT-MA Option Module 2011

●  After fill in your names, start from Introduction.  You can follow each step to build the 

    WebQuest. 

Create a Task

●  Design the task.  The teachers have to explain the tasks clearly. 

Design the Task

  ●  Teachers provide well-constructed process for students to follow and design a 

      3-day trip for their foreign friends.  The sources, including websites are provided

      by the teachers in the process.  

3 Steps for Studetns to Follow

●  The Evaluation Form is provided by this website.  You can create your own 

    evaluation form.

Evaluation

 ●  It depends on your own purpose to make your own conclusion.  You can tell 

     your students what they have learned during the process and have them check 

     if they have.  Maybe you can have your students do reflective writing and share

     it with classmates.

Conclusion

 ●  While we were busy building the WebQuest, our tutor checked our process and 

     gave us her feedback.

Comment for Our Tutor