eesl521's Podcast

Q1. In March's article, he presents three examples of WebQuests that he feels are bad examples. Why do you thinks those examples are bad examples in March’s articles?

Like professor said, those examples March mentioned as bad WebQuest sounded like pretty good internet activities. However, we need to look into it specifically. Tom March says that a well-designed WebQuest combines research-supported theories with effective use of the Internet to promote dependable instructional practices. In addition to this, Bernie dodge says, WebQuest is a model for integrating the use of the Web in classroom activities. He defined a WebQuest as an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. (Dodge, 1995).
According to these definitions of real webQuest, those three examples of WebQuests are not suitable to be real WebQuest. Just because they may involve some reasonable degree of learning, it does not follow that they are real WebQuests. Because the information in each activity can go from the browser to the product without altering the learner’s understanding. A WebQuest requires analysis, synthesis, judgment, creativity, and problem solving, ideally in the form of a task that is authentic, but also is a scaffolded learning structure. However, there is no chance to share each student’s idea and I could not find a reason that we need to use the internet with those examples.

Q2. What the best WebQuests had in common? Choose one of them and describe it in detail. What appeals to you? Which WebQuest successfully motivate you to complete the task? What makes you keep interested? Then, choose one of them to describe and explain how you might use this in your classroom and what you LOVE about it.

As I mentioned above, the best webQuests have analysis, synthesis, judgment, creativity, and problem solving, ideally in the form of a task that is authentic, but also is a scaffolded learning structure. I think good webQuests have specific instructions to finish tasks and they give students guide lines to complete the task for themselves. Also it is important that not student just follow the direction but student could get a chance to create their own result. WebQuest “The middle school transformaion” (http://www.wvec.k12.in.us/bgm/msindex.htm) motivated me to complete the task. By following this WebQuest, I could gain the tools needed to develop a student-responsive school which is at the heart of the middle school movement. I think the reason why I was interested in this WebQuest is that I would like be a teacher. In addition to this, there are some flash icons which make me think this webQuest is fun.
Through this webQuest, we can develop an understanding of the “Middle School Concept” and explore and begin to develop the structure and organization of interdisciplinary teaming. Also develop a standards-based curriculum through the incorporation of thematic units and interdisciplinary instruction. This kind of site would be very helpful for teachers. Throughout this Web Quest, I can grow as a team, and more importantly, as middle school educators. Of course, this webQuest is not suitable for my class because it seems that this webQuest was designed for teachers so I would like to make a new webQuest similar to “The middle school transformaion” but I need to change the subject suitable for my class to attract them. If I used flash icon on webQuest page , it could appeal to students more.

Q1. First, how can teachers take advantage of the popularity of blogs and podcasts. Come up with at least 3ways.

I think that internet is good for teachers and students in terms of three major advantages below. Firstly, teachers are ready to provide students with more information than textbook or teacher gives through blogs and podcasts. Through the internet, different kinds of perspectives and more specific examples that are related to learning would be given to students, which are not addressed during class. By doing so, their knowledge would be expanded and their understanding could be deep in learning. The fact that internet has the ability to go anywhere and whenever makes learning more effective and easily to both of teacher and students.

Secondly, the teachers might lead students to encourage the self-directed learning through blogs and podcasts. If teacher makes several rules that students have to keep in using internet at the beginning of the class, so that they can take advantage of internet, it will motivate them to involve class and interact with other people to share and solve the problem that is provided. In this process, they will construct their own knowledge and be likely to have a confidence

Lastly, there are active interaction between teacher and students. In addition to interaction between teacher and students, teacher can give students a chance to make a discussion one another. Then, there will be active interaction on the internet. It is also good way for students who are too shy to speak out their opinion in public.

Q2.Second, do you agree with Keen that web 2.0 is worse than you think. Explain your answer.

These days, internet has become an important tool for living in our life. Actually, web2.0 may contain good points and bad ones as well. However, if teacher have students use internet with caution and specific methodology, which might be excellent tool that has ever existed in classroom.
The internet is likely to be a useful thing if we make use of internet’s merits to facilitate student’s learning. Teachers do not have to provide content to student, they help students create, communicate and share what they learned including music, images and videos. Teachers provide a platform on which students create the content using target language then students could get linguistic improvement. This is very different from the beginning of the internet which focused on providing lesson for students but it could be an effective way of learning language.

Q3.Third and last, how would you define the “wisdom of the crowd phenomena” and how would you prepare your students for it. By the way, “wisdom of the crowd” is not always a bad thing.

I think “wisdom of the crowd “means the result already discussed from the crowd could be the best answer since many people has already discussed about the issue. The definition of “wisdom of the crowd” from wikipedia is that wisdom of the crowd refers to the process of taking into account the collective opinion of a group of individuals rather than a single expert to answer a question. As such, I think it is helpful to design discuss lesson plan. Like we are using discussion board, I would like to make an international internet site for discussion so that student can discuss with native speakers and share their opinions as well. After taking everything into consideration, students can reach the best answer and also develop their own opinions.

In March's article, he presents three examples of WebQuests that he feels are bad examples Why?

First of all, if I read those bad examples before finding out about WebQuests, I would have thought it was ok, but after finding out, “What the best WebQuests are about”, I realized that they are bad examples. March said, "A well-designed WebQuest combines research-supported theories with effective use of the Internet to promote dependable instructional practices. He defined a WebQuest as an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. ( Doodge, 1995) When a WebQuest poses an open-ended question, students must do more than "know" facts. Open-ended questions activate students' prior knowledge and create a personal curiosity that inspires investigation and brings about a more robust understanding of the material. The example March mentions may involve some reasonable degree of learning, however, these are not real WebQuests because the information in each activity can go from the browser to the product without altering or even entering the learner's understanding. A WebQuest requires analysis, synthesis, judgment, creativity, and problem solving, ideally in the form of a task that is authentic, but also is a scaffolded learning structure. This structure uses links to essential resources on the World Wide Web and an authentic task to motivate students' investigation of an open-ended question, development of individual expertise, and participation in a group process that newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding.

What appeals to me which WebQuests successfully motivate me to complete the task?

WebQuests "Never Again! Again? by Carolyn O Grade: 9- 12 College / Adult, drew my attention strongly. It appealed to me because I'm very interested in world peace and when I lived in the United States and Canada, both of my host families were Jewish, so I learned about some of their customs. They always talked about their sad history and after reading this WebQuest, I was able to learn not only more about Jewish history but also world affairs and history. It kept me interested because it starts by having teachers allow their students to view films and historical photos which are related with the topic. Then students read and discuss the following articles as a base of common knowledge before starting the project. Learners can compare and evaluate the consequences of past. It also gives students the chance to think about what they can do to prevent and stop mass killings in our world. They have an opportunity to read, discuss, and write about the topic.

What the best Webcasts had in common choose one of them to describe and explain how I might use this in my classroom and what I love about it.

The best WebQuests inspire students-centered learning. Since it provides authentic learning task, students can acquire much more knowledge by participating them. I’m really happy to experience about WebQuests because they create an authentic learning task and therefore, students can experience the full cycle of motivation from attention to satisfaction. I’ve always wanted to teach student-centered learning as opposed to teacher-centered learning. I think it can satisfy students because they can not only draw students’ attention but also help develop young people as independent expert learners. If I apply this WebQuest to my class I would let my students find a movie about genocides and show them, and talk about how they feel, what we can do to prevent them and finally write about it after watching it.

1.Why do you think those examples are bad examples in Marc’s articles?
Before reading two articles, I could guess what is the WebQuest based on its name. It seemed like the combination of Web and Quest. So I searched the definition on the Wikipedia. It’s an inquiry-based, online learning group activity. And as I was reading two articles, I realized there are something more than this.
When I read March’s article, three bad examples recalled me of the assignments many Korean elementary and middle school students are doing in the name of performance assessment. I’ve seen my nephews, nieces, and my students doing their homework on the Web without any alertness, just websurfing and collecting information according to their school teacher, and then pasting it on the paper, that’s all. According to Tom March, it’s mere Web-based activities. In this point, I ‘d like to say the core or essence of WebQuest learning is transformation of information. However, in the three bad examples, there is no transformation of information. And I think it’s connected with the six steps by Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. In the three bad examples, students underwent only three steps, Know, Comprehand, and Apply. I think there is no evidence of experiencing the upper three steps of Analyze, Synthesize, and Evaluate. Actually, I’m not sure my thought is exact, anyway, I think like this.
Among March’s requirements to become a real WebQuest, a scaffolded learning structure, open-ended questions, development of individual expertise are missed in the three bad examples. To establish a scaffolded learning structure, open-ended questions are essential. Since scaffolding means that students do their job for themselves with their teachers’ assistance, but as students internalize and advance in learning, teachers gradually diminish their support. And through this precess, students can be motivated by open-ended questions, develop individaul expertise, and self-actualize. And yet I couldn’t find the trace in three bad examples.

2.What does the best WebQuest have in common? Choose one of them and describe it in detail. What appeals to you? Which WebQuest successfully motivate you to complete the task? What makes you keep you interested? Describe in detail and explain how you might use these in your classroom?

I searched some WebQuest sites based on my interest. So I used the curriculum and grade level matrix, social studies, k 9 to 12. I found out some common factors consisting of good WebQuest. The first factor is what attracts reader’s attention. It means title of the WebQuest, proper photos, drawings, or something, and even font size are really important to draw people’s attention. (Some WebQuest sites have too small font size, so I lose my interest and attention.) And also there are steps and roles, at least two steps, group work and individual work, and most WebQuest sites have roles students should take. So students can exactly know what they should do to complete their tasks. Moreover, there are rich resources related to the topic of each WebQuest. Actually students are perplexed when they get the assignments from teachers, so reference resources must be given to students. And also, there are opportunities to think creatively, and I think it’s connected to scaffolding. While doing their tasks, each student could transform a novice to an expert, if they have enthusiasm for doing their tasks. The last factor is clear criterion of evaluation.

I’ve seen more than 10 WebQuest sites categorized in social studies, out of which, I like http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/genocide/ most.
First of all, the title, Never Again! Again?, is attractive. On the whole, there are appropriate photos, and quotes or wise sayings, which are maintain my interest on the sites. And also, there are continuous open-ended questions stimulating students’ interest and making them alert on the topic on each page. In addition, there are three steps, whole class, group work, and individual work. On the first stage, teacher can draw students’ attention on the topic of the task, genocide, by showing connected famous films “Schindler’s List” and “Hotel Rwanda”. And This WebQuest makes students get the background knowledge before starting their tasks by a teacher introducing exact definition of the topic, one specific example, and reading articles step by step. On the next stage, during the team task, students get the good idea from doing various tasks such as brainstorming, and making tables and diagrams. On the final individual task step, the teacher has students write a persuasive letter and circulate a petition about similar violent accidents occurring around them in reality. I think these last two points are the cream of crop of the WebQuest. Unlike the other WebQuest sites, it makes students’ apply their learning to their reality and, at the same time, it’s beyond classroom, it means this WebQuest expands the learning field into the real world by making students write a letter in person and do action, not merely learn in the classroom. I think it’s related to the transformative learning March is emphasizing in his article.

If I have a chance to teach students in school, I’d like to follow this WebQuest by showing related movies or video clips first and then making students read the articles or materials, and if possible, I would plan a field trip to visit historical sites in Korea. Then I divide students some groups, and let each group do their tasks. And on the last step, I’ll make students apply it to their reality, transformative learning, and carry out what they’ve learned. Of course, in this process, I continually give them open-ended questions to make them think creatively.

Before reading two handouts about WebQuest I didn’t know what WebQuest is. Now, I’m sure that WebQuest is very helpful tools for students to achieve their goals by themselves. I think the most important thing in WebQuest is interaction between learners and resources on the Internet.
The first question is in March’s article “The Learning Power of Web Quest”, there are examples of WebQuest that he feels are bad examples. Why they fall short of WebQuest? In the beginning of the article showed what WebQuest are not. He gave three examples, making PowerPoint slides to plan a trip across the United States, collecting data about endangered species to create a poster, and creating a brochure, a diorama, and an audio guide for a new exhibition. Even though students use internet to achieve their goals, March feels they fall short of WebQuest. Why are not these examples WebQuest? Because the information in each example can go from the browser to the product without entering the leaner’s understanding. Learners didn’t interact on internet to achieve the goals. Through WebQuest students should be able to achieve goals with various interactions depending on their choice.
The second question is what the best WebQuest had in common and how you might use them in your classroom and what you love about it.
I think good WebQuest provides proper scaffolds. In the article, he said “A real WebQuest is a scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on internet and an authentic task to motivate students’ investigation of an open-ended question, development of individual expertise, and participation in a group process that transforms newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding.” I think WebQuest should help students reach the goal through suitable scaffolding. Scaffolding is used to implement such approaches as constructivist strategies, differentiated learning, situated learning, thematic instruction,and authentic assessment.
Also, good WebQuests should pass the ARCS(Attention, Relevant, Confidence, Satisfaction) filter: Does the activity get students' Attention? Is it Relevant to their needs, interests, or motives? Does the task inspire learners' Confidence in achieving success? Finally, would completing the activity leave students with a sense of Satisfaction in their accomplishment? I think the ARCS is a good standard to choose a good Webquest.
I’m teaching 3rd and 4th grade students, so searched good WebQuest for them to learn how to read efficiently. I found over 10 different WebQuests and used them. While I used them I found what WebQuest is good through comparing and contrasting. Among them, I found interesting WebQuest “Reading Basics” by Merrily McInnis(http://zunal.com/process.php?user=36856). Students could choose their process depending their level, and that WebQuest provides interesting games which attract learners’ attention. While students interact in the game they could learn phonics naturally. If students complete tasks step by step they could read a required story. I’d like to apply this WebQuest for my students to develop their reading skill by themselves with fun.

In March’s article, he presents three examples of WebQuests that he feels are bad examples. Although those activities may involve some reasonable degree of learning, they are not real WebQuests because the information in each activity can go from the browser to the product without altering the learner’s understanding.
March mentions a real WebQuest is
- a scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on the web
- an authentic task to motivate learners’ investigation of an open-ended question
- development of individual special skill or knowledge that is acquired by training or study
- participation in a group process that transforms newly acquired information.
Also he says the best WebQuest inspire students to see richer thematic relationships to contribute to the real world of learning. While students are doing three example activities, they don’t have enough chance to interact in group and to get richer relationships to apply to their real world. That’s why March insists the three examples are not well-designed WebQuests.

While I explored many WebQuests, I found good WebQuests motivated students to complete their tasks. Also good WebQuests make students have their own opinion on the information and produce a creative activity. They include not only introduction for knowing and tasks for comprehending but only process for applying, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating.
The most interesting thing is for me that they provide evaluation tools for students. Students can recognize whether they acquired enough information for their activity goal or not by themselves.

I liked a WebQuest related with art and craft for 3rd to 5th graders, called ‘Guess Who’s Coming Dinner’ (http://www.mcvts.org/ettc/mentoring/GuessWho.htm). It’s a sort of game to have a party to be success through inviting very important persons of 17th century. It provides the tips to make a successful accomplishment such as the resource link of major historical developments, cultural development in different countries, clothing styles and daily life of 17th century. I guess students can acquire huge information about that period and apply their knowledge to real world through planning and holding a party. Also it includes evaluating process as like every good WebQuests has it. Students must enjoy this kind of activity. I’d like add role playing to the activity in my classroom because my students are younger than target age of that activity. To memorize script is a good method to enhance speaking skills, I think.

Question #1: In March’s article, he presents three examples of WebQuests that he feels are bad examples. Why? They sounded like OK Internet activities. But March feels they fall short of WebQuests. Why is that? I also felt they were OK at first. But after I looked around several WebQuests, I got to set up my own standards. Before telling my standards, I want to say about the three examples by March’s standards. He said that a real webquest has these things: A scaffolded learning structure, use of essential internet resources, authentic tasks that motivate, open-ended questions, individual expertise, and transformative group process. In my opinion, all of the examples do not satisfy with almost the standards especially the “use of essential internet resources” and “transformative group process.” In order to complete those WebQuests, students can just copy and paste from some other sources because there are so many similar resources. I am sure they don’t even need to use internet for the WebQuests. They can use commercial brochures or books in library. Besides, students do not need to interact and engage in the webquest to complete it. I think it is the most undesirable thing for group projects.

Question #2: What does make a good WebQuest? What are the best WebQuests had in common? I narrowed down my idea into four points.
1. Give students many chances to apply their idea so that they can be active and produce noble things. When students actively participate in projects, they will learn more. And, I insist student should make something their own result from the projects. Sometimes, they will make entirely clever things together, and they will love it.
2. WebQuests must provide rich context. Students need to be closely engaged in their projects. If WebQuests organize rich context, it will help students understand the projects and give them much resources to use.
3. Provide useful information. WebQuests must offer useful information to students, of course. If students feel it is useless, they won’t learn anymore.
4. Give students organized and specific instruction. If teacher give too much freedom to students, their boat will go nowhere or to the top of a mountain. Teachers need to organize their WebQuests, and require students to make specific output.

Question #2: My best WebQuest is “Extreme Makeover Classroom Edition” http://www.ldcsb.on.ca/schools/cfe/RPT/RPT_Tech_Challenge/teacher.html
This WebQuest is about developing students’ school facilities. Students find some problems with their classroom. Then, they survey about it to their school people. After they define problems in old facilities, they take part in engineers, artistic directors, designers, and public relations specialists. When they finish making their new products, they present them in front of their classmates. This WebQuest fully satisfy with my criteria. It gives students many chances to apply their ideas. Students can easily be contextualized with the WebQuest because it is the most related to their environment. Besides, instructor provides easy, useful, and specific resources and instruction. The WebQuest develop students’ metacognitive ability, and I suppose students will love this performance.

To be honest, I didn’t have any idea about the WebQuest before I try to do this assignment. Because I’ve never had any experience using WebQuest to do something. After reading March’s article I came to understand what the WebQuest is and how much it can be useful for students.

In March’s article, he presents three examples of WebQuest that he feels are bad. Why? He says the implementation of WebQuest sometimes falls short. First, the information in each activity can go from the browser to the product without altering or even entering the learner's understanding. Because newly acquired information undergoes an important transformation within learners themselves. Second, the WebQuest has to play a role as scaffolding because students need to internalize more advanced intellectual skills through ongoing practice. If not, it can’t be good. Third, real WebQuest facilitates meaningful use of the Web for educational ends. The more society is developed, the more students need internet use. So the teachers need to make WebQuest which helps students construct a deeper understanding and move through a crucial transition phase toward a more autonomous, learning-centered educational process.

Among many webquests http://infosys.pls.uni.edu/nielsen/nielsen/wdcintro.html looks attractive to me. Because the composition of this WebQuest apples to me. And the project itself to seems to give an excitement to students. Because students will be assigned a "guest" who has never been to Washington D.C. It is their job to give them a tour of the city showing them places that they would be interested in visiting. Students will be given a list of "places of interest", a short description of each place and web site. This project makes students feel like going to trip and let them complete the study with excitement like real journey. Evaluation also helps students how to plan and what to do in detail.

Web surfing to find a good material for teaching isn’t easy. But WebQuest which consists of reliable sources by teachers contains mainly introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion section. It can play a key role as a Project-based cooperative learning system for us who are living in the flood of the information era. That's why both teachers and students need an ability to make use of the web on and off line together. Students must not depend on only web sources but carry out the project off line together. So I can encourage students to utilize webs which make it possible for them to study by themselves.

WebQuests was not familiar with me when I first saw it in the text book, CALL Essentials. I just thought that it might be some kind of a task for students to complete by using internet or web surfing, which means a simple internet research assignment. I, however, realized that I was not quite right about it after reading two articles by Tom March and Bernie Dodge. I finally figured out what real WebQuests are by visiting some WebQuest pages on the internet following the instructions Professor Marcy gave.

In March’s article, there are three examples of WebQuests and they look good as a simple group assignment to enjoy for learners and also an authentic task. When it comes to real WebQuests, those examples come short essential parts for learning. According to the revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, students need to do some creative activities in learning such as apply, analyze, evaluate, and create other than remember and understand. The goal of mentioned examples is gathering information and at most showing others what learners found in the web. Well, some part of creative activities might be included when they make a poster or a brochure for the tasks. But it is not good enough for critical thinking when you are learning something.

Students need to produce the results to meet the goal of the task or the assignment with creativity and critical thinking that will help learners to consider things with a large variety of perspectives. Their various aspects can facilitate better solutions when they face a problem or have something to be done. Moreover, they can enjoy their lives with more metacognitive awareness. For instance, when they take a walk in the park, they might come up with brilliant ideas watching trees or looking over the river, stimulated by surroundings around themselves. They can put things together and analyze them to evaluate and apply them to their real life with creative ideas. Maybe I have gone too far with creativity and critical thinking practiced by doing real WebQuests. But I still believe that our life would be enjoyable when we can see more things that we cannot see now.

And I would like to add some more activities in those examples in March’s article. First, with the planning a trip, I would have students make itineraries for several categories of potential customer groups such as family, teenagers, honeymoon couples, and foreign tourists. And they will present why this itinerary is good for this group and why that itinerary is best for that customer. Or they complete one itinerary first and tell others that for whom they made it and what benefits are in it for those who are willing to travel with the itinerary. And have students find some weak points of the itinerary and let them discuss it to solve the problem. Second, the endangered species one, I would love to ask students why we have endangered species now and how about before, what we are doing to prevent its extinction and why it is important for us now and in the future. Last, the zoo, let me skip it…I seem to be running out of time.

After exploring some WebQuest pages, I have noticed that many of those sites ask students to finish a simple topical research task; however, a few of them demand that students should not only find information for the task but also create a new product of their own to apply it to a real world. And good WebQuests have specific instructions of how to complete the task with higher order thinking but not giving detailed directions only with appropriate guide lines and helping. Teachers help students to go one level up higher with good scaffoldings in those WebQuests. One of best WebQuests fascinated me was http://zunal.com/webquest.php?user=30599, “Adolescent Relationship and Dating Abuse”. Education about healthy relationship is important these days and our teenagers can protect themselves from dangerous situations in a relationship with the opposite sex when they know what to do with dating problems. I would like to help students to figure out what good relationship is with their own hands through WebQuests. Because knowing about true love is as much important as other knowledge in life.

Through Tom March’s article, I learned what real Web Quest is and what Web-based activities are.
Web Quest is described as inquiry-oriented cooperative learning activities through internet resources. There should be no reinforcing what students already know. Web Quest can break authentic problems and tasks into small steps. So the lesson format should be well organized including knowing, comprehending, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating.
In a real Web Quest, new information need for transformation within learners themselves. Getting information itself is Web-based activities. Web Quest needs one more step which is “transformative learning.”

March explains that real Web Quest should have Scaffold learning structure which is a kind of framework to support students’ capability. It links to essential resources on the World Wide Web. Also, it uses authentic task to motivate students’ investigation of an open ended question.
Web Quest develops individual expertise and it makes participation in a group process. The most important point of Web Quest is transformation of newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding.

In the article, three activities look like Web Quest, but they are lack of ‘Transformative learning.” For example, first activity shows students’ plan for the trip. They used Web which looks like Web-based activities not Web Quest. Each of students gathered information but they just reinforced their knowledge what they already know.
In the second activity, students just collected information about endangered species and made poster based on what they already know. To be a real Web Quest, there should be some scaffold learning structure to support learner’s capability more. They need “aha” experience.
In the third activity, they created lots of materials for new exhibit. Students reinforced already known knowledge of an exotic animal at a local zoo. Through preparing for the exhibit, learners participate in a group process. That is very good. However, there is no step for making acquired information into a more understanding.

After reviewing some Web Quest, I realized good Web Quest make learners really enjoy their tasks. After finishing tasks, learners can have their own knowledge through scaffold learning structure and it develops individual expertise.
The most enjoyable Web Quest among I’ve seen is “Reading Basics” by Merrily McInnis. This is for first grade students. They practice reading on the computer with five tasks. Each task is focusing on one area of reading. At the beginning, students just can read short vowel sounds but they can read a short story after going through short vowel reading, singing and building words. After this activity, most of students completed activities with little or no help. They completed most of the recording sheet and did good quality work. They learned reading through Scaffold learning structure. Through the fun game, students are motivated to investigate of question. They finally have “aha” experience about reading and they have confidence that reading story book is fun. I would like to make Web Quest similar to this activity. This is very easy to be applied in many ways before reading short story book. For example, at the beginning of the class, ask students to listen for short vowel sounds then read short vowel words by blending three sounds together. After that, ask students listen and sing about chunks then build words by putting two parts together. We can review all difficult words together in this way.

WebQuest is pretty interesting way to teach students. Personally I would like to say WebQuest is not a teaching method but a guiding method to make others get acquired new knowledge. I hardly understood what WebQuest is, furthermore how I can apply it in my real class or life. But after reading all of the articles you gave and searching webquests on the website, I could get what it is as well.

On March’s article he explains what is a real WebQuest and what WebQuest are not. He gave three bad examples which sounded like ok. Three of them are all about just searching and collecting information and showing what they have without any altering and evaluating itself. In other words they have only first step which is getting information in Bloom’s taxonomy. March mentioned the best WebQuest inspire students to see richer thematic relationships to contribute to the real world of learning, and to reflect on their own metacognitive processes. While students are doing three example tasks, I believe there is nothing they can get richer relationships to apply to their real life as well. That is the reason why he said they are awful WebQuest examples.

Before telling you the interesting WebQuest I found, I desire to mention what is the most powerful part of the WebQuest. I guess that is making the students pay attention and motivate. It means students can be the independent learner while performing WebQuest task.

The interested WebQuest I found is find a need and fill it WebQuest (http://www.lifestreamcenter.net/DrB/Lessons/need/index.htm). This WebQuest is about discovering a need in involved community, using imagination to find a solution and ingenuity to fill the need. After finishing the task, most of all I fell I learned some skills I can use in real world of learning. That is the main reason I chose this WebQuest. It shows several levels to step clearly and usefully while performing task and at the last it makes the students independent. As a first process the author named Carolyn Burleson suggests using a mind mapping tool for brainstorming on goods and services that are needed in community. For the next step she asks students to discuss and imagine better life if the need were met also make questions as many as possible about two parts; one is what they already know about the problem and another is what they need to know. Then asks them to develop a plan to create a product or service to meet the real need and consult certain agency. At the last step she asks students to make proposal to present to a funding agency. From the first to the end the WebQuest is well-organized and make the students think continually and also the proposal they made at the last step could be useful in their real life as well. The author mentioned the last part of the conclusion that mastery of problem-solving skills is mastering your life circumstances. It was very impressive for me. Since the WebQuest related to real-world needs, its application is boundless and should prove quite useful for solving many problems in our community as well as in my individual life. That is the reason why I was interested in this WebQuest and I believe others feel just like me when they find and join this WebQuest.

As I mentioned already good WebQuests have well-organized guideline to make the students improve their philosophy skill and finally make them to be independent learners. Teaching is not just giving them new information but making them to think and judge by their own thought. Most of the Korean kids are familiar in not a discussing method teaching but cramming method of teaching by teacher. I would like to use WebQuest to try to motivate them to participate in the class more. That is the most merit part of the WebQuest I would like to relate to my lesson because my last goal of teaching kids is making them to stand up without teacher.

As I worked on this class, I realized I was led step by step from gaining proficient knowledge about Web 2.0 from podcast #1 to creating my own WebQuest from podcast #2. I feel like I’m doing my tasks on a huge WebQuest project. From the beginning, I studied CALL standards, computer-based teaching skills, new technologies while I was completing related assignments and created my own productions. Some of them were needed to interact with my classmates and to show presentation for the professor. Every assignment was given with specific evaluation. Then I learned how to suggest questions from Bloom’s Taxonomy and I had to create my own worksheet to interact with other students. Finally, I will be able to create my open-ended WebQuest using prior mastery in this field. Aha, that should be my destination for this journey.

For the first question, in March’s article, there are three examples of WebQuest that he feels are bad examples. Why they fall short of WebQuests? At first, I couldn’t understand what are wrong and why they are bad examples. After finishing reading his article, I found that they don’t give enough opportunities to interact with peers and to problem-solve by themselves. They lack transformative process such as learner’s applying and predicting. In language acquisition, ‘Creative output’ is as important as ‘Passive input’. And real WebQuests require learner-centered development balanced on creativity and production.

For the second question, what the best WebQuests had in common and how you might use them in your classroom and what you love about it. To answer this question, I searched 12 different WebQuests which drew my attention. Those good WebQuests had some similarities. First, they satisfy a certain format: Introduction for Knowing, Tasks for Comprehending, Process for Applying, Analyzing and Synthesizing, Evaluation for Evaluating, and Conclusion for Reviewing. Secondly, they emphasize learners’ creativity to make something new out of what they have learned. All the teachers made good examples which enabled students develop their own production completing authentic tasks. Finally, they respect learner’s autonomy. Students are given open-ended questions or projects that motivate them to make efforts on language learning.

For me, I was highly interested in ‘Extreme Makeover Classroom Edition’ by Tech Committee of the LDCSB. Following all the steps, I should make written materials and visual materials for presentation based on the knowledge about designing buildings. To make it better, creating advertisement and conducting survey of peers and teachers were required. The most interesting part of the activity was to give a role as an engineer, an artistic director, a designer and a public relations specialist and appropriate resources with direct links or graphics. They were really effective to master some occupations and what they do by exploring linked sites and have the students do role playing. Applying one’s knowledge of a field to a real world could help problem solving ability.

When I apply this WebQuest to my classes, I want to add more various activities considering ages of the groups. For the low graders I would like to present easier category of jobs to search, and for the high graders I would like to show their future job navigation. Moreover, having them interview as reporters or linking with virtual game sites will activate them to participate in the class. It will be hard to create a real WebQuest, but it will surely be an effective way in language teaching.

It’s first time to hear about WebQuest. Now, it is one of my interests getting to know about WebQuest. In March’ article, he presents three examples of WebQuests that he feels are bad examples. They look like real WebQuests in the way students use Internet resources to produce a technology-enhanced product. But they are not WebQuests because they give the information in each activity can go from the browser to the product without altering. What is a real WebQuest? March says, it is a scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on the World Wide Web. It should be an authentic task to motivate for students to investigate to find out the questions of the task. When it has an open-ended question, students must do more than “know” facts. Open-ended questions activate students’ prior knowledge and create a personal curiosity. They can be changed by the newly acquired information in the process of task and move up to the more sophisticated understanding. It should give inspiration to help students understand the thematic relationship and develop expertise in the subject. It should contribute the real world of learning outside the classroom.
What makes a good webQuest? The most important is that it should be relevant to students’ needs, interests, and motives. And also the task can inspire to make a success of it. The best webQuests have in common. They are authentic task, collaborative, learners-centered, interactive and authentic assessment that brings to the real world.
They are readable, interesting, up-date and accurate and wouldn’t be ordinarily encounter in school.
When I looked up some webQuests they are really good way to support for students to learn a foreign language with fun and effectively. I felt difficult to do project activity in my class within defined class schedule. Moreover, I didn’t have enough resources and give guide for this kind of task. From now I can introduce this kind of activity on the real webQuest combining with the regular lesson schedule. It has a lot of attractive things as it mentioned above. I like this webQuest “Sharks – What’s on the Menu?” The task is fun and imaginative to me as well. Students investigate habits, normal diets about all kinds of sharks and create a short story why they would not a good meal offering sharks an alternate menu option. They also investigate what things are discovered in the stomach of the shark. It must be fun. This webQuest has informative resources to do the task. That’s why I like it. It leads students to understand better how sharks live and to talk and share their ideas. At the end of project, students have evaluation of the task, which encourages students to test their newly obtained knowledge with real world feedback. Evaluation also is fun activity giving comments with others. I realize that I should have used this kind of webQuest when I taught English about dragon in my clsaa. Most students felt difficult in learning that topic. I just informed the topic and students just accepted some information in the class. Lesson should be learner-centered. To be effective lesson, I should guide well for students to have more fun and know better about dragon. Students investigate and discuss the question about dragon sharing their ideas and experiences. They can make a story about “what would you do if dinosaurs came back?” It must be fun as well. I am sure I should give a real webQuest for the task now.

First, How can teachers take advantage of the popularity of blogs and podcasts. Come up with at least 3 ways.

First of all, since we are living in a world that can't live without exposure to Web 2.0, we can take advantage of the popularity of blogs and podcasts to teach students effectively, since it provides opportunities for individualized learning which benefit students at all levels, teachers can provide education in many ways to students, for example, our school provides an online study system that students can use to study by themselves anytime and anywhere that they have access to a computer and the internet. Further to this teachers can give feed back when they are done with their study outside of the classroom,so students can have enough time and get feedback that they need to work on individually.

Secondly, Web2.0 also provides students with the option of completing their studies at a convenient time and gives teachers the opportunity to help their students outside of class, like what we do now. I've always wanted to study TESOL as a master's program, but it was so difficult for me to find spare time since I'm always busy with work. However thanks to Web 2.0, I'm able to study TESOL master's program. I am able to study when I have free time, even though the university is in America and I am here in Korea. One of my adult students told me that he was delighted to have been able to do homework and study when he went on a business trip to India through web 2.0. I think it's great since there is no space and time limitation.

Lastly, most younger people nowadays use the computer almost everyday and they love it, so teachers can take advantage of this phenomena when teaching. Teachers can find a lot of teaching methods through web 2.0 and give students to do homework and study by them, in my case, I give my students homework like singing pop songs and recording them so that I can hear them or repeating movie scripts and repeating parts of a CNN news bulletin after listening and studying. Since students and teachers can communicate one to one they can come to enjoy studying.

Second, do you agree with Keen that Web 2.0 is worse than you think. Explain your answer.

I think it depends on how we think and use it,like everything it has good and bad aspects,if we think positively about it and hence use it in a positive fashion it can be one of the greatest tools that we can ever have and if we use negatively, it can be worst thing ever. Since Korea uses Web 2.0 a lot, it has had very negative consequences, examples of this would be that celebrities are insulted and thus see themselves in a very negative light. However, If we use it wisely we can learn and get a lot of help from it, like people can study English using Web 2.0 for free thus they don't have to spend a lot of money to learn and find a good places to study, we can also get a lot of information through it without going to the library or book stores. For example, whenever I go on a trip to another countries, I always look for information about the country through Web 2.0 before going there and it helps me a lot.

Third and last, how would you define the "Wisdom of the crowd phenomena" and how would you prepare your students for it.

I think that the wisdom of the crowd phenomena describes that a group of people are more likely to generate ideas than a single individual on their own. I would encourage students to think they always have to be others' position, and tell them about how it can lead cruel result if we abuse it, and remind them it can make our world much better than now if we use it wisely. As a result of being in a class environment individual students tend to perform and behave in line with the other students. Thus a poor student in a good environment is likely to perform better and a good student in a bad environment is likely to perform poorly. Thus it is good to put students into groups that will extend their capacities and "drag" them along to better performance.

The person on the photo on left is not me. This is about the question no2. in a webquest I found interesting, She is Eight-year-old Rona (left) with her sister Salma from Afghanistan, who answered the question in an website about what your school is like. They find school fun, but now they go to their neighbor’s place to learn because it has destroyed.
Anyway the answer for the
Q.1. When I read the three examples in March’s article, I felt they are OK activities, too. I didn’t found something bad or weird in the examples. But March gives it as an example of ‘what WebQuest are not’, mentioning that the implementation of WebQuests sometimes falls short. He said the three examples include some degree of learning, but the information in each activities can go without altering the learner’s understanding. I think March is trying to explain it with the words like ‘altering’, ‘transformation’, or ‘reflection’. Without transformation within learners themselves, WebQuests are not real WebQuest. He also describes a real WebQuest as powerful strategies such as scaffolded learning structure, an authentic task to motivate, development of individual expertise, and participation in a group process that transforms newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding.

Q.2. I explored several different WebQuests in an attempt to figure out which one is good. After looking around some of the WebQuests, I’ve got the answers for the Q.2.. I think the best WebQuests had in common. Basically, the web has a scaffolded learning structure and a quite good design. Plus, it includes interesting contents, doable task(& authentic task), reliable and easily findable information sources(directly linked). Furthermore, student might be able to be developed as individual expertise through the WebQuest, which contains transformation or reflection.
While exploring some WebQuests, I found an interesting one: The Secret Magazine of Afghanistan: http://www.wiu.edu/users/rsl105/The%20Breadwinner%20Webquest/gtp/index.htm , which is designed for 5th Grade- Social Studies and Language Arts. It’s mainly about children and education in Afghanistan and the comparison with ones in American. It contains an interesting theme, its task is doable. And it includes information sources which are directly linked to each website that has an authentic audience’s answer like the one on the photo above answered a specific question. In the step of process, there is a check-list provided for a guidance.
I think I can adapt this to my class. I like the points such as role play and the comparison. Through role play, they can learn how to collaborate each other and can be more close to be a expertise. And the comparison. It will be expressed as a Venn diagram like circles which has own color, if there has in common, the circles can be overlaped in some part of these, which would lead to transform the collected information into a more sophisticated understanding.

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