Review on WebQuest

WebQuest-A Computer Based Learning Tool

On education and training around the world, Information and communication technologies have a major impact. All over the world E-learning is increasingly incorporated day by day into different educational programs.

One of the relatively recent e-learning tools is WebQuest. The concept and the term was created by Dodge in 1995 (in Ezell et al., 2003).

According to Dodge it is ‘’an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the web. Wubquests are designed to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners’ thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.”

WebQuest can be created at different educational levels for different subject areas. It is a technological tool which is becomimg popular day by day in the academic world.

In 2001 dodge devised a set of general guiding principles for creating a well-developed webQuest. These principles can be explained by the following acronym:

·         Find great sites

·         Orchestrate learners and resources

·         Challenge learners to think

·         Use the medium

·         Scaffold high expectations

Dodge believes that by following the five principles, through previous peoples experience new creators can improve their knowledge and practice. He developed a five-step process that will help to design a WebQuest (Dodge 2002). These five steps are to:

(a) Select a topic appropriate for WebQuest;

(b) Select a topic that suit for the topic;

(c) Describe how students will be evaluated;

(d) Design the process by finding specific resources which could be explained further; and

(e) Modify and improve the WebQuest.  

These principles and steps need to be followed while creating a WebQuest. The objective is to process the knowledge about a specific topic o field. Students can get new information and complete the task by attending several steps. After finishing the task they have to “transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to on-line or off-line” (dodge, 1995).

If we consider Dodge’s definition (1995), a WebQuest should contain these 6 essential parts:

1.      Introduction:  the introduction section provides background information. It also provides motivational scenarios like “ suppose you are an astronaut, planning for a space trip to find out a new planet”. This part also provides the overview of learning goal. The goal of the introductory part is make the students interested to the topic, to make it fun and desirable. Projects should relate to the students interests, past experience, or future goal. Then the project becomes inherently interesting. A successful introduction can keep the students engage throughout the work-from beginning to the end.

2.      Task: The task is the formal description what students need to do. Firstly, the teacher will search resources online for a particular topic, arrange them. Then he will devise some activities for the students. Students will be able to use the arranged information. The task should be exciting and doable. The tasks should be important and fun for the students. The teacher can give an example of a finished project to make the students understand what they are going to accomplish.

3.      Process: this is description part of the steps through which students should go to accomplish the work. Every step should be embedded with link. Teacher should provide example for every step.

4.      Resources: this section is a list of resources like book mark, website etc. previously, resources can be found in a separate section but now process part is embedded with resources so that they can be used while necessary. The important thing is non-web resources can also be given along with the online resources. These can include videos, audio cassettes, lectures, posters, models, sculptures etc.

5.      Evaluation: Each WebQuest needs a rubric to evaluate students’ work. The standards should be fair, consistent, clear and specific.

6.      Conclusion: this section allows the students to reflect and allows teachers to comment. In this section the teacher can also suggest other possible ways to complete the task.

In spite of having a lot of benefits WQ also have some limitations

·         It can take a considerable amount of class time when access is not possible from home

·         Students can get bored with the same content, reading, and writing

·         Students can be easily distracted by using the web.  

·         If the WQ is not properly created and if task are not relevant, it will be a total waste of students’ time.

WebQuest is a proper way where students can gather knowledge from unlimited source. It is an interesting way of free learning.

Review on Edmodo

Edmodo is a Social Learning Platform 

Edmodo is a social learning platform for both teachers and students. It is much more secure than any other learning websites because both teachers and students have to create a separate account. So, it is easy for teachers to give tasks by using Note, Assignment, Quiz, Poll, Snapshot for the students. Here teachers can attach e-book, audio clip, video, picture, and any types of documents in teachers’ library that can be used for making the tasks. Moreover, Edmodo gives the chance to create a group for an individual class which helps the teacher to manage all things in the group.

Edmodo is an educational website that takes the ideas of a social network and refines them and makes it appropriate for a classroom. Using Edmodo, students and teachers can reach to one another and connect by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips. A teacher can assign and grade work on Edmodo; students can get help from the entire class on these. There is a safe environment. There is no bullying or inappropriate content, because the teacher can see everything that is posted on it.

Also parents can join the class to bring a level of transparency that is difficult to achieve without technology.

Edmodo is a great resource for teachers and adult learners. Teachers have the ability to assign homework and share notes, links, and files. In addition to this, teachers can post alerts, reminders and share events. Teachers report that it is very easy to use. Also teachers have praised the technical support (Techno philia) because they tend to listen to teachers problems and fix them in a timely manner. In addition to this, this is still a relatively new Web 2.0 Tool and the makers are continuously incorporating teacher's feedback to make improvements. It is beneficial for teachers and adult learners in a way that it gives them an opportunity to expand their PLN or Personal Learning Network. Through these, teachers can make connections with other educators with similar interests.

There are many websites, blogs, etc. that list ways that teachers can utilize these tools with their students. Often, other teachers and adults can contribute and collaborate by adding their own ideas.

Finally, teachers can participate in professional developments online through Webinars that cover topics such as how to use this tools and how to use the various features on it.

To create a network, teachers will begin by creating an account. Teachers can do this by going to the website's homepage at: http://www.edmodo.com/

Next, students can join by going to the same website. In order to join, they will need to have a private access code provided by the teacher. The code will enable the student to access the main page for the classroom. Fortunately, students are not required to enter any personal information so the site is completely secure. Not only that, but students do not need to have an email account in order to set up an account.

Teachers can then create subgroups which can eliminate cross posting. When the course is over, the teacher can close out the network. Later, the teacher can create a new network for the next course. In Edmodo, there are 5 types of questions; like- multiple choice, fill in the blanks, true-false, short answer & matching.

Edmodo gives the teachers a huge opportunity for making a test. In Edmodo, a language teacher can design all the four language tests-listening test, speaking test, reading test and writing test. Edmodo is full of features which are able to motivate the learners.

Review on TED-ED

TED-ED an amazing educational tool

TED-ED is a free educational website for both teachers and students where teachers can create lessons by using videos or can customize lessons from a series of videos. Teachers can also use TED-Ed’s videos and lessons to supplement any subject. For English language teachers, TED-Ed helps them to create a listening task that can be used to test the listening skill of the learners. At the same, learners are benefited by practicing a listening task that develops their language skill as well as enriches their knowledge by providing them lots of information outside their textbooks. 

TED believes passionately that ideas have the power to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately, the world. This underlying philosophy is the driving force behind all of TED’s endeavors, including the TED Conferences, TEDx, TED Books, the TED Fellows Program, and the TED Open Translation Project. With this philosophy in mind, and with the intention of supporting teachers and sparking the curiosity of learners around the world, TED-Ed was launched in 2012.

TED-Ed is TED’s youth and education initiative. TED-Ed’s mission is to spark and celebrate the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Everything we do supports learning — from producing a growing library of original animated videos , to providing an international platform for teachers to create their own interactive lessons, to helping curious students around the globe bring TED to their schools and gain presentation literacy skills, to celebrating innovative leadership within TED-Ed’s global network of over 250,000 teachers. TED-Ed has grown from an idea worth spreading into an award-winning education platform that serves millions of teachers and students around the world every week.

TED-Ed Originals are our signature content: short, award-winning animated videos about ideas that spark the curiosity of learners everywhere. Every TED-Ed Original represents a creative collaboration between experts. Such experts may include TED Speakers and TED Fellows, as well as educators, designers, animators, screenwriters, directors, science writers, historians, journalists and editors. These original animated videos, paired with questions and resources, make up what we refer to as TED-Ed Lessons.

The TED-Ed platform allows users to take any TED Talk, TED-Ed Lesson or educational video and easily create customized questions and discussions around the video. Users can then distribute these lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class or an individual student.

As a country, how can we better inspire our students — and support our educators? To explore ideas, TED, WNET, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting teamed up for a brand-new one-hour special, funded by CPB's "American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen." TED Talks Education was an exhilarating night of talks hosted by John Legend.

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.

Our Mission: Spread ideas

TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we're building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world's most inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long.

In fact, everything we do — from our Conferences to our TED Talks to the projects sparked by the TED Prize, from the global TEDx community to the TED-Ed lesson series — is driven by this goal: How can we best spread great ideas?

TED is owned by a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation. Our agenda is to make great ideas accessible and spark conversation.

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a non-profit media organization which posts talks online for free distribution, under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded in February 198 as a conference, which has been held annually since 1990 TED's early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins, but it has since broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural, and academic topics.

The main TED conference is held annually in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Prior to 2014, the conference was held in Long Beach. TED events are also held throughout North America and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Billy Graham, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, Bono, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners. TED's current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson.

Since June 2006, TED Talks have been offered for free viewing online, under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license, through TED.com. As of March 2016, over 2,400 TED Talks are freely available on the website. In June 2011, TED Talks' combined viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, and by November 2012, TED Talks had been watched over one billion times worldwide. Not all TED Talks are equally popular, however. Those given by academics tend to be watched more online while art and design videos tend to be watched less than average.

TED was conceived in 1984 by architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman, who observed a convergence of the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (that is, "TED"). The first conference, organized by Harry Marks and Wurman in the same year, featured demos of the compact disc, co-developed by Philips and Sony and one of the first demonstrations of the Apple Macintosh computer. Presentations were given by famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and influential members of the digerati community, like Nicholas Negroponte and Stewart Brand. The event was financially unsuccessful; it took six years before the second conference was organized.

From 1990 onward, a growing community of "TEDsters" gathered annually at the event in California State University Monterey Bay, until 2009, when it was relocated to Long Beach, California due to a substantial increase in attendees. Initially, the speakers had been drawn from the fields of expertise behind the acronym TED, but during the nineties, the roster of presenters broadened to include scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, philanthropists, and many others.

TED Open Translation Project started in May 2009 and aims to " out to the 4.5 billion people on the planet who don't speak English," according to TED Curator Chris Anderson. The OTP utilizes crowd-based subtitling platforms to translate the text of TED and TED-Ed videos, as well as to caption and translate videos created in the TEDx program (with its technology partner dotSUB until May 2012, and recently with open source translation tool Amara). At the time of the launch, 300 translations had been done by 200 volunteer transcribers in 40 languages. In May 2015, over 70,000 sets of subtitles in 107 languages had been completed by (an all-time total of) 38,173 volunteer translators.

The project contributed to a significant increase in international visitors to TED's website, with traffic from outside the US growing 350 percent, 600 percent growth in Asia, and more than 1000 percent in South America.

Members have several tools dedicated to knowledge management, such as the OTP Wikipedia, Face book groups, or video tutorials.

This website is a great resource for both teachers and learners that engage the learners by providing well-produced contents as well as some of the best videos and animations. These contents not only present complex content in comprehensible ways but also work as a source of inspiration when they become frustrated. So, teachers have to design TED-Ed lessons based on the learners’ demand so that learners can enjoy it.

Teachers can choose three types of TED-Ed lessons. The first one is TED-Ed’s award-winning original lessons named ‘TED-Ed Originals’ that are represented by the collaborations of expert educators, screenwriters and animators. The second type of TED-Ed lesson is ‘TED-Ed Selects’ which are carefully selected by volunteer teachers and TED-Ed staff, and these lessons are created by other teachers or website visitors that involves adding questions, discussion topics and other supplementary materials to any educational video on YouTube. Another type of TED-Ed lesson is ‘TED Talk Lessons’ that are designed by using the TED Talk episodes where the famous persons have talked about different topics. These TED-Ed contents can be used as a lesson in classrooms and homes to introduce new topics to the learners in an interesting way.

TED-Ed website is designed uniquely to present video content that is user-friendly. Users can easily find out the video content according to their interested area by clicking on ‘View all TED-Ed lessons!’ from the bottom of the home page. Users can choose any lesson from these areas – ‘The Arts’, ‘Business & Economics’, ‘Design, Engineering & Technology’, ‘Health’, ‘Literature & Language’, ‘Mathematics’, ‘Philosophy & Religion’, ‘Psychology’, ‘Science & Technology’, ‘Social Studies’, ‘Teaching & Education’ and ‘Thinking & Learning’. Now teachers have to decide how these contents will be used for the learners because some of the video contents are inappropriate for the classroom.

           
However, each great lesson of TED-Ed is to reach and motivate as many learners as possible. At the same time, TED-Ed has provided an international platform where teachers can create their own interactive lessons for helping the learners.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a tutor blog and a facebook group to teach a group of class eight Bengali medium learners

  

With the advancement of technology, human life is becoming dependent on it. Technology offers many facilities to make our life easier. It has reduced distance, made the whole world a global village. It has also taken access in education sector. People are using social networking websites to teach and learn. It has both advantages and disadvantages.

Nowadays, facebook is mostly used social networking website. It is a platform, where people from all around the world can be connected there very easily. On the other hand, though blog is not that much familiar in Bangladeshi context, it can also be used to be connected with the people. Both the websites have different unique features.

Advantages and disadvantages of a facebook group in terms of teaching a group of class eight Bengali medium learners

The main advantage of facebook group is people of our country are very much familiar with facebook and they know the functions of it. The settings of facebook are designed in a very easy way so that all the people even school students also find it easier to use. It is very easy to open a facebook group. People can add a member in the group from their friend lists and even from outside of their lists. It is very easy to find people in facebook. In facebook people can send request to a person to join a group. If that person is not interested he can ignore the request. So privacy is maintained here.

When a member of a group posts anything all the members get notifications. So, they do not need to check again and again whether there is any update or not. One of the most important advantage is when a post is published every one can see it. They can share their opinions in the comment box. People can discuss here on any topic. Any member ca join to the discussion.

All the people of Bangladesh cannot afford internet. Facebook can be used without internet nowadays. Some mobile phone network companies are giving this opportunity. All the students of class eight in our country do not have computers in their homes but every family has a mobile phone at least. So it is easy to stay connected with the group through mobile phone.

Besides all the advantages, there have some disadvantages of facebook group as well. To join a group, everyone needs to have a personal account on facebook even if the person is not interested. To open a facebook profile a lot of personal information is required like email address, phone number etc. An e-mail account is also required to open a facebook account. All the students of class eight may not have a personal e-mail account. Without e-mail account one cannot open a facebook account and without a facebook account one cannot join a group.

Moreover, to learn from or teach in a facebook group is not that much trouble free because it is distracting. For example while a student is working in a group, a notification can appear suddenly where it is mentioned that one of his friends has posted photos or shared some life event, the student may get busy with that post. Students of class eight are not that much matured. In facebook group, they can be connected with the people whom they should not be. It is very easy as it is a matter of one click away. There are shown some ads and friend suggestions which are not suitable for a class eight student. Videos are uploaded on facebook and anyone can access it which may also harm them. Personal chat option is also not necessary for a group but it exists in facebook. There are chances that students can be engaged with other things rather than learning.

Advantages and disadvantages of a tutor blog in terms of teaching a group of class eight Bengali medium learners

 Blog is not that much familiar in Bangladeshi context but it should be. Because it can be a platform of effective teaching and learning. A student of class eight may face difficulty at initial level but after some time they will get familiar with it. I am suggesting it for the school students because it is less distracting than a facebook group. Privacy is also maintained here. There is no option to be connected with unknown people personally as there is no chat option. Concentration will be attached on the discussed topic. If the teacher does not allow anyone cannot comment on others activity as it is a teacher regulated blog. Students can get rid of unexpected comments. If any task is given, the teacher can comment on every individual’s work separately.

Working on a blog can make the students more social at the very early age. Because in comparison to a facebook group, blog is more social while facebook is personal. That much personal information is not shared in a tutor blog.

People cannot see or contact with anyone only by clicking on the profile name which is a criteria of facebook group. So unwanted contact can be avoided with is very much important for the students of class eight. They need to concentrate on learning the topic.

There are some disadvantages of blog as well. Without internet blog cannot be used. It is required to have a computer because to use it by mobile phone is not that much comfortable. Like facebook, an e-mail account is also necessary to open a personal blog. A student of class eight may not have an e-mail account. To comment on a blog, it is needed to sign in to the e-mail account. A person cannot go to another person’s blog from his own account. Rather he needs the address exactly. Only then he can access to some other person’s blog. It is almost impossible finding out someone by searching. It would be helpful if the blog stored the addresses in which the user commented. In that case, it would be better to be connected. But there is no other option like this. Every time it needs to enter the whole address to see someone’s blog. It seems quiet impossible to remember a list of addresses.

In spite of having disadvantages, both the websites are helpful in teaching and learning. If people use those carefully, these websites can benefit the users learning.  

Duolingo.com is a language learning website where people can learn language. It is totally free. It is a helpful app to practice language skills but probably not appropriate as the only or primary source of learning a new language, especially for language that have very different sentence construction pattern.

The objective of this website is giving a chance to the people of all around the world to practice and to lean foreign languages staying at home. It is not needed to go to any institution to practice or to learn. There are many language clubs in this website where people can be a member of any club. It helps them to practice in a group.

This website gives the learners an opportunity to learn a foreign language in a fun and rewarding way. It is a game like application. It is not particularly challenging as many of the questions are effectively multiple choice. The game based design encourages daily use. Users can re-visit any section that they desire how many times that they want. The users interface is flawless. The only downfall is the ads, but that is understandable for a free app that must make money somehow.  Later, I also found a version which is without ads.

The website is less concerned with teaching grammar to the users and more focused on vocabulary. By repetition and recycling of vocabulary, it gives users a chance to memorize without drilling.   

This website is helpful for the people who want to brush up their foreign languages which they are getting to forget and confused. 

The motivation system of the app is too poor in my sense. Only ‘congratulation!’ is not enough and appropriate for all the learners. There may have some more words and phrases for motivation which could be used according to the level of performance of the user.

Though primarily it is a helpful website still there are a number of limitations. It does not start from the basic level. It starts from word level but does not teach alphabets of the language. Another thing is the content within a given language does not go far enough. That is, it will get a user to an intermediate level but cannot get the user to an advanced level in the language. There may have some advance courses for each language. The speech element works intermittently. Going from one level to the next level is not smooth enough. After every level there ae some offers to get bonus points or to make the points double. It is good for some users I think but the people who do not want to waste time by doing those level cannot avoid it easily. After skipping those offers, the app needs to be restated to go to the next level.

It is necessary to choose a language to start a course. After choosing a language course get started. But there is no option no go back and choose another language as far as I explored.

The home page is not containing enough information which may help the users. There is no way to test up to higher level or even submit feedback or help request or these options ae so hidden as to make them unavailable. The website teaches using quizzes. New material is introduced in the quizzes when the user does not know the answer. People ae guessing what is the correct answer. They make it wrong and then it gives the correct answer. The courses are completely example driven. There is no explanation. This website, to me, seems very useful for e-learning and practicing language that has already been studied. But it is not suitable for the beginners. I faced difficulty in learning completely foreign language with this app due to lack of explanation. There is no explanation of grammatical structure. Some words have more than one meaning and those are not explained.

While exploring, I was having a really hard time trying to figure out how each word is pronounced. There is no option of checking my own pronunciation. In my opinion, language learning should be through verbal interaction, which is not possible in this website. It only teaches me the pattern of word but I am not able to pronounce it which is the first and foremost use of a language. My improvement by exploring this website is, I can guess, I can match words but I cannot speak or write. The objective of language is to communicate but this website does not make me able to communicate through the language.

The main goal of learning a foreign language is to speak in that language. there is no speaking activity from the very primary level. So sounds are very difficult to utter and to remember for me. If pronounce the word as it spelt, it becomes awful. Because it is not even near to the exact pronunciation.  

Another thing is, all the instructions are in English. So, this app is only helpful for the people who know English. For the rest, this app is not going to help anymore.  

Once it sent me back after I had gone so far. There are too many levels in one category. It is tedious.

If the courses begin with the very basic level like sounds and alphabets, that would be better. There should have enough explanations for new words, grammars, sentence structures and so on. Levels can be educed in every category. There may have some more motivational phrase to motivate learners effectively. Motivation is really very important in learning a new language. There should have a system of recording the users voice to match it with the exact pronunciation which is given into the website.

Most people like me are not interested to learn how to read or write the language first but how to speak the language. It would be a lot better if the website focused more on how to speak rather than how to write or read it.

Language learning website is really a great idea for the modern people who are too much busy. It can help people a lot if necessary improvements are done.

I want to improve my writing. please give your valuable comment.