Electronic Village Online

Jan-Feb 2006

Creating WebQuests

This session is sponsored by the Adult Education Interest Section of TESOL

TESOL, Inc,
the professional association

TIMELINE

1. Participants REGISTER for the Electronic Village Online (EVO) 2006 Sessions during the 2-week period:

Monday, January 1 -

Sunday January 15, 2006

2. EVO 2005 SESSIONS run for 6 weeks:

Sunday, January 16 - Sunday, February 26, 2006

3. TESOL Convention 2006, Tampa Bay, FL, runs Wednesday, March 15 - Saturday, March 18, 2006. There will be meetings with and demonstrations by EVO session leaders and participants. An Internet Fair session will be held at the CALL IS Electronic Village, TBA.

Several events in the convention's Electronic Village will be synchronously Webcast by WorldBridges (Skype: worldbridges)

CONTACT THE ELECTRONIC VILLAGE ONLINE COORDINATION TEAM

In your mailer, be sure to remove the spaces in the address.

For queries about specific EVO sessions, please contact the moderator of the session directly.

+ + +

Elizabeth Hanson-Smith, Computers for Education/Command Performance Language Institute, Sacramento, CA, USA
<ehansonsmi@yahoo.com>

Dafne González, Universidad Simón Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela
<dygonza @ yahoo.com>

Chris Jones, Arizona Western College, Yuma, AZ, USA
<edtec2002 @ yahoo.com>

Aiden Yeh, Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
<aidenyeh @ yahoo.com>

Buthaina al-Othman, Kuwait University, Kuwait City
   <buthaina_3 @ yahoo.com>

Maryanne Burgos, Maryland, USA
   <maryanneburgos @ yahoo.com>

Susan Marandi, Al-Zahra University, Teheran, Iran
   <susanmarandi @ yahoo.com>

Nicolas Gromik, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
<gromik_tohoku @ yahoo.com.au>

Vance Stevens, Petroleum Institute, Abu-Dhabi, UAE
<vstevens @ emirates.net.ae>

Christine Bauer-Ramazani, St. Michael's College, Colchester, VT, USA
    <cbauer-ramazani @ smcvt.edu>

To find out more about TESOL's Online Teaching Certificate Program (the foundation course begins January 16), go to TESOL and click on >PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and then >ONLINE EDUCATION, or e-mail edprograms@tesol.org.

(EVO is not a part of the OTCP.)

The CALL Interest Section of the international TESOL professional association offers the opportunity to participate in the Electronic Village Online (EVO), a professional development project and virtual extension of the TESOL 2006 Convention in Tampa Bay, FL. The intended audience for this project includes both TESOL 2006 participants and those who can participate only virtually.

You do not need to be a TESOL member to participate in sessions of the Electronic Village Online.

Some graphics copyright free from buttongenerator.com

----> Sign up at this session site directly after January 1st.
Registration closes January 15.

Sessions run from January 16 to February 26.

We strongly recommend that you sign up for no more than two sessions.

Creating WebQuests

A step by step session to build a WebQuest and discuss ways to integrate WebQuests in ESOL curriculum

Moderator:

Paula Emmert <Emmert4@yahoo.com>

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity where students are given a task and a process to complete that task. A unique characteristic of WebQuests is that the information required to complete the task can be found online through speciic links on the Internet.

This session will introduce WebQuests and then compare traditional WebQuests with several created for use in the ESOL environment. The session will then begin to explore appropriate topics and lessons for creating WebQuests, specifically topics that lend themselves to critical thinking vs. information gathering. Once topics have been chosen, this session will utilize the QuestGarden on the WebQuest Page to begin building WebQuests. Once built, this group of WebQuests will be evaluated and the participants--You!-- will have a WebQuest to supplement your current curriculum. Ways to integrate WebQuests will be discussed throughout this session.

Objectives: In the 6 weeks, participants will learn collaboratively and hands-on to:

Determine which topics lend themselves to building a WebQuest and which are more prone to just gathering information.
How to build a WebQuest using the QuestGarden
Share thoughts and experience on how to integrate these tools into ESOL curriculum.

Target Audience

ESL/EFL teachers interested in using WebQuests in their teaching. Participants are expected to have basic familiarity with e-mail, word processors and the Internet. No prior knowledge of WebQuests is required.

Weekly Content

Week 1 - Introductions
- Upload a photo
- Read the one page document, Netiquette, and take the self- test
- Familiarize yourself with the Yahoo Groups site

Week 2 - Introduction to WebQuests.
- Complete Introduction to WebQuests: A Guided Tour for an introduction to
this learning tool.
- Evaluate an ESL WebQuest vs. Non-ESL WebQuest and plan to discuss.

Week 3 - Let's discuss your lesson or topic!
- Does your topic elicit critical thinking or is it just information gathering?
- Create account on the WebQuest page at the QuestGarden
- Where does your topic fit in the WebQuest design pattern?
-Are there sites on the Internet that support your WebQuest?

Guest Speaker: JoAnn Miller

Week 4 - Take some time to familiarize yourself with the WebQuest QuestGarden tool.
- Begin building WebQuests step by step using the WebQuest QuestGarden tool.
- Check that critical attributes and non-critical (critical in ESOL?) attributes are clear.

Guest Speaker: JoAnn Miller

Week 5 - Continue to work on your WebQuest
- Share location and link to your WebQuest toYG for peer evaluation.
- Complete peer evaluations of other participants WebQuests.
- Discuss some of the challenges of creating WebQuests

Week 6 - Complete any unfinished work
- Evaluation of the Creating WebQuests session

Communication Media to be used:

Creating WebQuests Yahoo Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creatingwebquests/
Session Web page - http://www.call-esl.com
WebQuest Page - http://webquest.sdsu.edu/
Yahoo Messenger - http://messenger.yahoo.com/
Tapped In - http://www.tappedin.org/

About the Moderator:

Paula Emmert is an adjunct professor at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College in the United States. She completed her MA TESOL at Alliant International University in San Diego. Paula has presented at numerous state and annual TESOL conferences on developing and using WebQuests in the ESOL environment. She welcomes all questions and comments and can be reached at <Emmert4@yahoo.com>. Happy Teaching!

JoAnn Miller is an independent teacher/consultant who has created and used many WebQuests. She has offered several sessions on technology for the EVO in past years, and has recently served on the TESOL Board of Directors.

To join this session:

Go to the Creating WebQuests Yahoo Group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creatingwebquests/

and click on the blue button:

To read about other EVO sessions: