Hello mates,

This week (12) we were asked to find out what a webquest is, and what it is for, so let´s do it!!!!!

WebQuests were developed in 1995 by Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San Diego State University in response to a request from the Bell Telephone Company to come up with an idea to effectively engage and teach students using the Internet.

• WebQuests are used for using Internet resources, which encourage students to use higher order thinking skills to solve a real messy problem. WebQuests are a sub-set of Problem-Based Learning (PBL).
• 
  
• ADVANTAGES

• Opportunities for cooperative and collaborative group work Highly motivational - authentic; inquiry-based Interdisciplinary Critical, creative, and higher order thinking skills - REQUIRED One of its disadvantages that I liked is that it can be used for people from all ages, and the teacher puts the limit in the webquest so that students cannot everything they want. Adaptable to fit your students' need DISADVANTAGES Webquests can take a considerable amount of class time, especially when students can’t get access from home. Can get easily distracted using the web Students can get bored doing the same thing with the content, reading it and then writing answers

Essential Components

There are six essential components of a WebQuest that are used to structure the activity and organise students. They are:

1. Introduction
2. Task
3. Resources
4. Process
5. Evaluation
6. Conclusion

This is my webquest´s link: http://www.radford.edu/~sbisset/natamericanswq.htm

This webquest is for an intermediate level of English because of the activities it has. Also, I consider that this webquest is very attractive for those people who are interested in learning about American culture.

Well, in my opinion webquests are an interesting way to teach and learn online as well because when teaching online and let students create their knowledge by themselves is better than when students follow the teacher. Also, when teaching using this wonderful form teachers work as a facilitator. Furthermore, a good webquest puts the power of the web behind your topic. You can show students or let them discover for themselves, not just tell them. Web sites can take your students anywhere in the world. 
A webquest lets students explore selected areas in more depth, but within limits that you have selected. This makes webquests ideal for classes which combine students with different ability levels.
Webquests can also increase the "comfort level" of students using the Internet for learning activities. While your students are probably already computer literate, a properly designed webquest can help students become creative researchers rather than simply "surfing" from one site to another.

Hello everybody, I hope you are ok...

This week (11) I´ve learnt a lot about methods so as to teach, and for learning as well.
I am sure that everyone enjoyed working on nicenet this week because the whole week we were learning how PBL encourages students so that they feel motivated to keep on learning; moreover, studetns are able to create their own knowledge. Also, with this way to teach students don´t feel pressure by the teacher, who is the leader in the classroom.

In my opinion, I really like this awesome form to learn and teach because while working on it I felt very, but very comfortable. Furthermore, I think enyone can work freely because students are the ones who are in charge of looking for new responses or answers to the problem they could find. In addition, with this method the teacher is just managing his/her students so that they do everything well.

Well. I just hope you agree with me... Even you can disagree, that is up to you...

Sincerely,

Omar Rivas Muñoz

Hello again  teacher and classmates,

Well, in this week (10) we had to read a lot , but it was well worth because I have been reading about how to improve Reading and Writing skills in my students usig internet and everything it involves.
I also realised that if as teachers we do not do interactive activities with our students they will do the activities, but not because they want, because they have to.

On the other hand, I think that the purpose of having the class online is that we can be in contact with each other (students and teachers), and obviously students have to be managed by the teacher.

Besides, I just want to comment that everything I read  in the articles is very similar to what Miss Letty is doing each week on nicenet with us.

Regards,

Omar Rivas Muñoz

Hello teacher and classmates,

1)  Well, this week (10) we were told to work on a website, in which we could find good activities and techniques so that as teachers we can develop in our students Reading and Writing skills using internet and everything it involves.

2)  The URL of the page I worked on is:  http://web.macam.ac.il/~elaine/eti/ and the name of the page is English Through the Internet.

3)  I think the page that I mentioned above would be ideal for beginner students because of the activitis, and excercices it has.

4)  I believe this page can be very useful for any students, but why? because it has a lot of fun and attractive activities that seem very interesting for students because they are open questions so tha students are free to write what they want and like.

5)  I strongly think that the page that I worked on this week can be very interesting for beginners students because the excercices it has are appropriate for this students, moreover in the activities they have to write what they like according to the questions in the activities because if students don´t like the activities obviously they are going to do it because they have to not because they like and want.
I think that with activities that call students´ attention it is easier to improve their Reading and Writing skills in a funny way .

Yours,

Omar Rivas Muñoz

Hello everyone,

How did it go this week? I hope it went great for everybody.

A)  This week (9) I worked on Fonethics: The sound of American English and the Nasal Sounds, and this is its URL: htttp://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html.

B)  I consider that this page can be used for all levels and ages because what it teaches is really important for those English Learners, and no matter age or level, but it could be used especially for an intermediate level of English because in that level students are able to identify what movements to do in order to pronounce correctly a word in English.
This page is especially focus on pronunciation. I think it is one of the most important skills when learning a language.

C)  I strongly recommend to use this very interesting page for those people who are interested in learning a foreign language like English because it is necessary to develop a good pronunciation so that we can try to imitate native speakers´ sounds.


D)  This week (9) we worked on oral skills. we also saw some interesting pages, which show us the different way we can develop the four skills in order to learn or speak a language. I had already a little bit of knowledge about these pages that in my opinion are very useful for people like us because we can consult them at any time.
Now I for one I know more about how to develop the for skills, I mean, I know more strategies and activities.

Sincerely,

yours humble friend Omar Rivas Muñoz

Hello everyone,

How are you doing?

ABOUT DELICIOUS...

In this week (8)  I have learnt a little more about delicious. Wabout the have discussed about advantages and disadvantages. I really think that it offers more advantages than disadvantages, I don´t think that the fact of not having internet at home can be seen as a disadvantage.
It has lots of advantages because we can share, and especially save our best pages in order not to forget them and whenever we want to use them we are able to do it very easily.
I didn´t know what  the advantages of delicious are, even I didn´t know what a delicious is for, I have learned too much I guess...
Also I felt more confidence with delicious because we worked on it last week, I have been experimenting some  great moments in my life that I have never experimented before.

I hope you comment on my blog because almost anybody has done it weeks before.

Sincerely,

Omar Rivas Muñoz

Hello and welcome to my humble blog!!!

ABOUT BOOKMARKING AND DELICIOUS

This week (7) I strongly believe that everyone learned something really interesting, new and amazing.
Sincerely I think I am making headway with this incredible subject because I am lerning a lot, now I know what a delicious is and what it is for. Now it allows us to save our favourite pages in a secure place, in which we are able to find them in a very easy way.
In my opinion as future English teacher I would like to apply delicious page to my students in order to have them involved with this wonterful tool called "Technology", and at the same time we are sharing our links with all the members so that we can help and be helped.
What I like the most is that we can use delicious at any time, and whatever place we are in. That is one of the most important advantages of using technology for teaching.

Sincerely,

Omar Rivas Muñoz