The role of WeQuests in learning a foreign/second language?

  


    Bernie Dodge has defined webquest 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." It helps student to discover knowledge and look for information by using computer, so it supports using the Web as a source of real-world information. Moreover, It supports task-based language learning. It’s also important component of contemporary language learning methodology, the use of authentic language materials. It also helps students to assess their performance and measure their improvement of mental skills.


     Web Quests provide teachers with a structured environment where they can integrate technology into the curriculum and make it beneficial to the students.


     Using webquest will improve several skills in students. Students will think, try, plan and solve the tasks and activities together, so it makes them more collaborative in class. Also, it improves their problem-solving skill and their ability to imagine. They should use their own creative thinking to find solutions for the problems they may face. They will also learn how to use recourses from their real life instead of using their boring textbook or materials that teacher give them. Students also become more independent.

    A Web Quest has 6 essential parts: introduction, task, process, resources, evaluation, and conclusion.

     In my future, if I become an EFL, I will definitely use webquest, because I find it very nice way to teach and learn. I think  it will make my students more excited to learn the lessons.

Evaluating LANTERNFISH Website

        This website http://bogglesworldesl.com/ created by a group of  ESL teachers in Asia and North America. Their aim is to bring printable quality resources to teachers and parents, so it is an educational website. It has some sources, they mentioned names for some information and the other don't have sources. The authors/managers allow users to comment and ask question through gunnchris @bogglesworldesl.com, but the users can't comment or ask on every part separately. It means when something is not clear on x-worksheet, the users can't ask about it under the main file. In every file they do, they write the website's name at the end of the page. The site has experience and imagination. There is no social biases. The website is a very useful for teachers , it is easy to use and it is clear , accuracy .Also , it is not well interactive website and all the information and idea links to each others. The teacher can use this website free and they don’t need to buy for it.

     
   The site is overlapping, untidy and  not easy to find the important elements. There is no easy decorations which causes a large dispersion of the reader's mind. It is not difficult for the reader to read, but the font size of some titles annoys the eyes of the reader. Website's colors are very close to each other like the background's color and the color of the headlines even thought they are in bold. The background is not consistent across the pages.  Background  and texts have many colors. Also, unvisited links are of the same color, they should to be with another color to let  the users choose what they want easily.  The links in this site are clear to the reader and easy and navigate between pages . Links go to the right place and there is no error and all of them are available and easy to get or download . The site does not has taps audio and video to help in listening skill.

       The title is related to the purpose of the website and it makes the visitor interesting to see. The site's contents are easy to read. The materials of the site are not in will organizing, because there is many words written in a different orders and sizes, that’s  make the visitor feel confused. There is many good and effective information and materials in the website that have goals to make the visitor get knowledge and make them interesting to visit it. The website provides interactive lesson plans with useful articles for teachers on EFL and ESL. The grammar is good and there is no mistakes. Fair use guidelines are followed with clear, easy-to-locate and accurate citations for all borrowed materials, and there are no materials included from websites that require permission.

         Finally, after evaluating the website, it has many topics ( easy, difficult and in between). The topics are suitable and fit all levels, but without specification and It doesn't explain the important connections for learners. It is not interactive, because it doesn't cover all skills. It should cover all skills to benefit the users.  Also, it is not tidy and orderly manner attract the learner to learn. It is suggested to provide listening materials rather than just the listening sheets, improve layout and page design to meet the target audience, categorize the content into level, skill, and type of activity/assessment, and there are typing/grammar mistakes which should be edited.

Virtual Classrooms in the EFL Classrooms.

My Reflect on the live session we had with Peggy "how does Arabic influence the Pronunciation of English?" She talked about the deference's between the sound system in Arabic and English language and suggest some solution for this problem

A virtual classroom is an online learning environment.  The environment can be web-based and accessed through a portal or software-based and require a downloadable executable file. There are several more advantages of using the virtual classroom: 1- Accessibility to a variety of students, 2- Large numbers of students can benefit from distance learning, 3- Studies support the notion that the virtual classroom may be more effective for the mature student, 4- Cost effective since maintenance on rooms is not involved. And there are also disadvantage for session classroom: 1- Not all schools have the technology, however, this is rapidly changing 2- Some instructors feel that the "human aspects" of teaching will deteriorate 3- Some feel that education quality will go down because of "mass" communication learning systems 4- Some instructors feel that their jobs will be in jeopardy

At the end, I see the use of virtual classroom is good to make the classroom interactive and students can share their ideas with their teacher and give them more knowledge about the subject

Do teachers need to create web-based language activities for EFL students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Why and why not?

These days, Internet is the most important tools make people communicate. Teachers need to create web-based language activates for students because it have many positive things. It is improve student's skills and make the subjects easier

Teachers can make online quizzes about the lessons that they take in the classroom and they can make assignments, grammar lessons, vocabulary game and reading at online books

Finally, the use of web-based language will make the class more interactive and they should apply it because students love to use technology and they find it easy to use

Wordle in EDU 401

Normalisation of Bax in the Saudi Kingdom

In these article of Stephan Bax he talk about Technological Change and the Future of CALL. He wrote about the technology in the past and how it will be in the future. For example: the change from phone-based to wireless communication because of improved technology and telephone/Internet relay facilities. Technology will improved even better, and people one day will be using their watches as cell phones.

Technology is so important to our lives , and in every field of our lives, such as education, businesses .It is extremely important for safety and emergencies, such as calling the police, fire, and medical.

From what I have read, I knew that they identified a possible critical future agenda for CALL that normalisation asked for. Their aim can be the normalisation, in which CALL becomes invisible, Helping in the needs of students and teachers, and emerged into every teachers’ everyday practice. This will cause changes in technology, in the size, shape and position of the classroom computer, in attitudes, in approach and practice amongst teachers and learners.

In my own opinion, In KSA, CALL has started in official way in the last 10 years. Before that, teachers were teaching and students were learning by the traditional way. Now I think that learning in KSA is getting progressing. And I have noticed that the level of education is improved and became depend on using technology. I think KSA still need some efforts to reach normalisation. Normalisation is possible in some our Saudi context but not in all the places. We need time to apply it in all our schools.

“Challenges of creating web-based activities in Sally Morrison” Interactive language Learning on the Web”

These days, internet is more helpful than everything because it is connected all people together even in learning and classroom.

There are many difficulties to create your own interactive language learning activities in the Web. Like maybe teachers they do not have the technical skill and knowledge to do it and they feel it too complex to do that. Another difficulty in creating online activities students maybe they will do not understand the technology because they are not familiar with it and they will take time to understand.

in conclusion the development of Web-based language teaching and learning activities  will help teacher and students to learn more faster and teacher can teach on the web:  Vocabulary practice, grammar lessons, comprehension exercises