Week 5 PBL and WebQuests

This week was dedicated to Problem Based Learning and Web quests as their Internet version.  We were proposed to read the following articles:” Less Teaching and More Learning" by Susan Gaer (http://www.ncsall.net/?id=385 ),  “A Project-Based Learning Activity About Project-Based Learning” (http://www.sun-associates.com/lynn/pbl/pbl.html),  “Project-based ESL Education: Promoting Language and Content Learning” by Yan Guo (http://www.atesl.ca/cmsms/home/newsletters/december-2007/project-based-esl-education/), “Essential parts of a WebQuest” (http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html )and   Useful WebQuest Resources (http://www.webquest.org/index-resources.php ).

Collaborative project-based learning is a useful methodology and WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners interact comes from recourses of the web. According to it, the teacher proposes the students one or several real-world cases. Students must work cooperatively in groups to seek solutions to the cases. In this way, collaborative active learning takes place; students learn to learn and to apply the theory to practical situations. We know from Dale's Cone of Experience that people mostly remember when they do a “real” thing.

Common Features of Project-Based Learning:

■ Students conduct multifaceted investigations extending over long periods of time.

■ The projects deal with real-world questions that students care about.

■ Students encounter obstacles, seek resources, and solve problems in response to an overall challenge.

■ Students make their own connections among ideas and acquire new skills as they work on different tasks.

■ Students use authentic tools (real-life resources and technologies).

■ Students get feedback about the worth of their ideas from expert sources and realistic tests.

■ Problems are presented in their full complexity.

■ Students find interdisciplinary connections between ideas.

■ Students struggle with ambiguity, complexity and unpredictability.

 By the conclusion of the project, students are able to do the following:

• Gather pertinent information through various data-collection techniques, such as interviews, surveys, and library and Web research

• Engage in critical thinking activities, partially through synthesis activities

• See improvement in their language skills

• Use English with more self-confidence

Here are recommendations for EFL teachers who attempt to integrate project-based learning into their own curricula:

• Devise projects with students' immediate and future language needs and content interests in mind, while at the same time remaining vigilant of institutional expectations and available resources.

• Specify language, content, task, skill, and strategy learning objectives in line with students' needs and institutional expectations to maximize the benefits of the project.

• Strive to engage students in all stages of the project. Begin by giving students the chance to structure parts of the project, even if those contributions are small, with the aim of building a sense of student ownership and pride in project engagement.

• Design and sequence tasks with great care. Make sure that (1) skills are integrated to achieve real communicative purposes, (2) students are obliged to use various strategies for meaningful aims, (3) critical thinking is required for successful task completion, and (4) students are held accountable for content learning.

• Integrate tasks that require both independent and collaborative work. Help students reach agreement about different team member responsibilities. Students should view each other as single links in a chain that unite, through exchanges of information and negotiation of meaning, to produce a successful project outcome.

• Be sure to plan an opening activity that promotes students' interests, taps background knowledge, introduces important vocabulary, and builds up expectations for the final activity.

• Take advantage of Steps 4, 6, and 8 to provide explicit instruction so that students not only improve their language abilities but also excel in the information gathering, processing, and reporting stages of the project.

• Allow time for feedback at the conclusion of the project and at other critical junctures as well.

You can also watch the video"Why use webquests"    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZ949Zi0TY&feature=related