Tuesday, 15 April 2014


In this article the Webquest was define by Bernie as "an inquiry oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing." He meant that the Webquests provide the opportunity to combine technology with educational concepts and to incorporate inquiry-based learning. Webquest is structured into components, which include: introduction, Tasks, process, evaluative, concluding and often motivational elements are added (e.g., gaming aspect, extra credit, and contest), which might include groups competing against one another.
Webquest is highly recommended for teachers because it is a good way for focusing on the learners' thinking at the levels of applying, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, and allowing them to explore the information in a meaningful manner. Therefore, the teacher who designs the tasks should choose an interest task for her students to motivate them. Also she is considers as a facilitator during the learning process. Moreover the teacher has to build the structured environments that orient learners to a specific curricular topic by provides them with the Internet, print resources they need and guidance for completing the tasks and for evaluating learning. On the other hand the students are active participants at the forefront of any Webquests who guide their learning process by following what the teacher has asked in the task. Students use critical thinking to look for information from internet resources, they either answer questions or solve problems which depends on the given task. In addition the class environment has to be informal, where students work on their computers to solve the task. But we must mention that students should not stick only to their computers, but also they should work together as groups in classroom to complete their tasks. They can draw, color, rearrange, read books, magazines and newspapers, etc. Furthermore Webquests tend to be student-oriented and collaborative when students engaged in constructivist activities resulting in shared learning experiences and new knowledge based on enquiry-oriented language use and Web research skills. Project-based learning (PBL), one of the enduring approaches to education that supports the use of Webquests because it gives a variety of learning styles and multiple forms of intelligence have a real world authentic orientation, also it is focus on the learner constructing meaning and knowledge from an assigned activity. And it promotes higher-order thinking, uses hand-on experiences and various modes of communication.
As a future English language teacher I will use the Webquest with my students, because I believe that learning is not what you receive but what you work on and acquire. This will help my students to be collaborative and independent learners also to be able to improve themselves where they can learn and find information by themselves. Also they will have different and interesting experience by using the Webquest.

Friday, 4 April 2014

Evaluating Lanternfish Website

One of the websites dedicated to ESL and TEFL is LANTERNFISH, http://bogglesworldesl.com/. The website was created by Chris Gunn; who’s a web and materials designer currently teaching at a university in Korea, Stephen Gordon; an editor and a content creator specialized in business English resource materials and currently teaching at a university in Korea, Cam Lirette; an editor and content creator currently teaching at a university in Korea, and Thomas Lavelle; a writer and content director currently teaching at a university in the United States. The website and its content is maintained and created by a group of ESL teachers in Asia and North America. They do offer contact information for users to email them and ask questions and content contact and the content is owned by the website and it prohibits anyone from redistributing them electronically or otherwise.
LANTERFISH’S aim is to bring free printable ESL material resources to teachers and parents for educational usage. The website offers advertisement that is very distracting and annoying. The website’s content does not expand the imagination or the experience of the user, but it does not promote any bias to gender, race, religion, etc.
The website’s design and information is very confusing and it’s difficult to find specific materials, you need to choose an activity to access the glossary from it which is a hassle and there is no search bar to quickly access material. The text’s font differs and not spaced appropriately, the graphics are not distracting but the whole website feels outdated. The topics and links have the same color which is very confusing and not appealing to young people or children, but the website does load very quickly without any problems and does not require any plug-ins and users do not have to pay any type of fee or offer any personal information.
The website’s title is not appropriate to its purpose, and its content is not easy to read because it’s all blue and feels like it’s melting together. The website includes a good amount of materials that makes visiting it worthwhile, but the content is not presented in an attractive way and there is no search tool to help users find topics easily. Some aspects of the website are updated and some aren’t but the spelling and grammar are correct. Links to more information are not provided and the graphics are related but outdated. The websites is dedicated to ESL but there are Spanish and French exercises which aren’t relevant to the intended audience, the skills required to use the site’s features and structure aren’t easy and a bit challenging, but the viewpoint presented is comprehensible. The content is educational and appropriate for all ages.

The website offers a huge diverse content material for all ages and levels and their needs, but it isn’t interactive or engaging and there isn’t one book that can include all the content on the website to be compared to.