ZimELT

Learner autonomy in ELT

So, we have gone through several ways of engaging and encouraging learners to collaborate and create knowledge. How about letting them off now? Yeah, give them 'space'. They are always asking for it anyway. It's perfectly OK. It's called learner autonomy! Simple English Videos is a fantastic site for self-tutoring. You gotta try it!!

Autonomy

I know you don't need a lecture on this, but this idea is advocated by one Sugata Mitra who firmly believes that left on their own with relevant equipment or material, learners will master any content. They don't necessarily need teachers! Now, do not panic. You are not obsolete, yet. While I don't completely share his views, I concur that learners can learn on their own and should be encouraged to do so. That's where Simple English Videos fits into your teaching, or not-teaching strategy.

About Simple English Videos

This is a site built with autonomous English learners in mind. It is a simple instructive site with a wide range of video tutorials on many aspects of English: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, songs, stories etc. And the sweetest bit, it is run by a couple of native English speakers Vicki and Jay. Trust me they are stars in this business. One of the comments on their blog says 'Great work. Very useful to foreign learners. Hope this it will continue and expand to other areas of English language learning.' (Mohamed Gali) That sums it up for me.

Vicki and Jay's Menu

Well, they do have a bit of a rich buffet. This here is how their Videos page looks:

As you can see, these are all interactive links to videos on the aspects of English language. Learners will have no trouble navigating the site and finding material that is appropriate for their level. For example if they select Grammar they get access to 'lessons on English tenses, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, conjunctions, gerunds and infinitives, indirect and direct objects, and lots, lots more.' What's more? The English grammar videos they will access are simple and laden wit apt examples they will find very instructive.

Nourishment

There are, of course, no prescriptions here. I only offer my humble suggestions. After visiting the site, you will find ways of using it that best suite your context! What you can do is directly access the site and make use of videos in your lessons by beaming them on a whiteboard etc. This obviously saves you time in terms of preparation. However, you need to know exactly which video you need for your lesson prior to the lesson. Fumbling around at the beginning of a lesson makes you look disorganised. You can also flip classes by asking students to view a particular video before a lesson. The videos are so good that if students invest time in exploring whichever you recommend, you can follow-up with worksheets in the next class.

For learners the possibilities are wide. After assessing learners you can use the site as reinforcement and further practice of concepts covered in class. If learners are struggling with a particular concept, say perfect tenses, send them for some autonomous learning session with Simple English Videos. They will find a different voice refreshing! The greatest affordance, especially for Zimbabwean learners, is the pronunciation videos. I am not a fan of 'native speakerism,' but it doesn't hurt to know how native pronounce some words. I visited the site and fooled around with screencast-o-matic to show you what the site has to offer.

Now that's handy isn't it. There's a lot more entertaining lessons on the site. You can direct learners to elementary, intermediate of advances sections for tutorials that suit their levels of understanding.

Why Simple English Videos?

For starters they are free and readily available and you can sign up for updates etc. Controversial as it may sound, I like the fact that the site is managed by native speakers with a good understanding of what can be useful to the non-native learner. The simple, easy to navigate design of the site lends itself to use by anyone with basic computer skills.

The site makes use of a healthy mix of text and audio-visuals as there are screen.....to accompany the videos. The presenters have an entertaining style that has a 'grandparently' touch to each and are definitely appealing to both young and adult users.

Material available is permanent allowing learners to access it over and over again, pause rewind and playback. The site is a patient teacher that will not get annoyed with learners. Since it is accessed from anywhere anytime, learner have complete control over their learning. In a way the site also covers the speaking, listening, reading and arguably, writing components of English language learning and usage. I find the site very useful, hope it works equally well for you!

But...

There is always the grey to every silver cloud. While this site is rich, it is not available to learners without internet access, the bulk of which are the ones who would benefit the most from the most, especially in Zimbabwe. Learners with smartphones and mobile network connectivity can access this site on the go, but data costs may be prohibitive. The site does not allow learner input and feedback which is somewhat disappointing. It seems to lecture more than dialogue with visitors. It appears there's no room to download and store content for offline use.

That being said, Simple English Videos is a great tool that is open to manipulation depending on you contexts and learners' need. It is important for us as teachers to expose learners to tools they can use independent of us. Like Sugata believes, learners have enormous capacity to master English on their on through readily available online site like this one. Do not feed them, teach them to fish!!!

As always, I look forward to your feedbak on this one.

Wordsift

I hope you all had fun with Wordle. Today I will walk you through it's twin, essentially they have the same DNA: vocabulary language learning for comprehension. Now, you will admit that the key to learning in any field is language competence, without which learners struggle especially in content subjects. I hope that makes you feel special because you are the catalysts in every field, every single one of them.

What is it?

You are probably wondering what sifting has to do with language learning. It's not baking school is it? No it's not, but we do 'bake' language learners when we heat their brains with seemingly incomprehensible texts! And that' where Wordsift comes in to separate the finer words from the coarser ones facilitating comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. It is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus capable of generating word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words. Its innovative display compels learners to explore and learn.

Using Wordsift

You need four things to use Wordsift: a digitised text of reading material, a computer, internet connection and this blog entry!! Follow these simple steps and you will be good to go in a jiffy:

Open Wordsift at wordsift.com
Copy and paste text in the text box.
Click 'Sift'.

Easy stuff, but very effective! As always, here is a little tutorial on using Wordsift. You will find it as easy as I promised.

After sifting your choice passage, you get a word cloud of the 50 most common words in the passage and their frequency is shown by their boldness-the most bold being the most frequent and vice versa. Here is a word cloud that I created from the article Big Saturday Read on the up coming election in my country, Zimbabwe.

Of course, the most common word here is election and it is easy to tell that this is a political article by merely looking at the most common words displayed in the cloud. Words such as legitimacy, opposition, government, voter etc are all related to elections. Any ideas how this can be useful in a language class?

Teaching with Wordsift

As with all things techy, your innovation is key. I will share a few tips on exercises that you can do with learners. These are very much related to the features of Wordsift. As I sated earlier, this is a fantastic tool for enhancing comprehension and bridging language gaps. One of its features is Cloud Styles which enables the redesigning of the clouds. Another is Sort Words: A-Z; Rare-Common and vice versa, which allow alphabetical sorting and determine how common displayed words are in English language. The Mark words feature determines whether the language of a text is academic, general and so on. These are all crucial aspects of second language learning.

The feature I find most useful is the Wordnet Visualisation that you will find to your left just under the wordcloud. Initially, it displays an interactive network of words related to the most common word in your cloud, election, for instance. However, you can always change the display by choosing a word of your own in the cloud. The web tells you whether a word is a noun or verb, gives you synonyms and even different uses and implications! Would you ask for more?

Beyond synonyms, Wordnet displays sentences with the most common or selected word in context! This definitely makes it easy for learners to work out the meanings of words as they are used in the text. Collocations can also be studied this way. What's more, you can even use the images and video options to find images and videos related to the text. When I chose this option guess what came up for my text? All the figures currently associated with elections in Zimbabwe; officials in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and politicians!!! Here they are:

Google Images and Video Searches offer crucial support ensuring learners are not confronted with only boring text definitions of vocabulary, but also relevant visual representations of the vocabulary!

Why Wordsift?

It's greatest appeal is the multi-modal approach to vocabulary instruction. This allows learners to learn new vocabulary by integrating new words with old ones, increasing learners' encounters with a word, facilitating imagination, and promoting independent learning strategies. It is a handy toy in the linguistic playground that is readily available to capture and display the vocabulary structure of texts. Generated word clouds can be printed and displayed in classrooms. This dynamic quality allows teachers and students to quickly see the key vocabulary in the text, look for low frequency words that could cause difficulties, and identify key academic words. It also creates numerous opportunities to talk about and explore the richness and wonders of language! Its interactive features offer instant feedback on many aspects of vocabulary learning, which also develops learner autonomy. Once learners are familiar with this tool, it is easy for them to unpack the meanings of words in a chosen text no matter how complex. It is ideal for all contexts where learners have access the internet through personal gadgets which is very common in Zimbabwe.

However,

Wordsift is only accessible online making it a tool for the privileged, To use it, you will need stable connectivity. As always, ensure you have a plan B, just in case something goes wrong with your internet connection or computer. The images and video options also need to be handled carefully as inappropriate content may be accessed by learners.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Experiment with Wordsift and its features and let us know how you are getting on. Remember your comments always help improve things. Adieus for now!

Wordle

Tired of trying to get your students to learn just another word? Stressed about ever shrinking vocab bases? Well, stress no more, I have the panacea right here. It's clourful and spellbinding. Wordle their game-fried minds and dramatically improve the quantity and quality of both written and spoken language in your classes. With word clouds, it must pour tons of vocab! And they will all get soaked, trust Uncle Cliff on this one.

So, what is Wordle?

You may have guessed from the colourful picture above, it is a free word art tool that turns any text into a visual representation of content by mixing whole chunks. Words that appear frequently in the text are made prominent in the cloud, making them demand attention like needy children . Clouds you make can be tweaked with different fonts, colours and layouts. For instance, if you are going to teach vocabulary on, say computers, you can give the word cloud the shape of a desk top! What's more, pictures you create are yours to do as you please with: save on your machine, print and even share.

Creating your very own Wordle!

It's the easiest thing you have ever done. All you have to do is select and copy the target text- this can be from any source: novel, short story, poem etc; open Internet Explorer-other browsers may not support Wordle; search for Wordle.net; select create and paste your text into the text box; hit 'create' and bingo! You are an instant van Gogh! There is really no need for downloading any software or signing up. Here is a comprehensive tutorial that will make you a wordsmith in just a few minutes.

Making the best of Wordle

There are numerous ways to use wordle in ELT. The traditional ones are teaching new vocabulary; revising texts; predicting and pre-reading exercises or introducing new texts. Dialogue or text creation is also possible with word clouds, so are text comparisons; and displays of survey results.

Specifically, word collocations, scramble sentences and dictogloss can all done using word clouds. Can you find the haiku in the the word cloud above? Is that 'numerous?' May be not. But I have found a super dude who boasts up to 35-ways-of-using-word-clouds-in-language-teaching . Awesome isn't he? Go ahead and consult good old Greg. You will learn plenty of innovative ways to teach vocabulary. It's a double serving: you teach in a fun, colourful and effective manner and save yourself the agony of reading trite so-last-year stories. You won't need to mark with a glass of ale this time, you will need just your glasses!

Affordances?

Like I said, because it has very few options and features, Wordle's affordances are a little limited. However, the bright side is that the word cloud is perfect for many fun exercises. Among its popular features are text visualisation, contrast and comparison, and wall display. Affordances encompass data visualisation, text mining-which helps learners sort huge data- and its ability to render the gist of a text at a glance. Over and above these, Wordle is visually appealing and fun because of its infinite ability to surprise through randomisation. It's also a handy tool for self reflection.

But...

All that glitters is not gold. Once you save a word cloud there's no editing, it's pretty much a one way street of limited features and options. You need to carefully consider the content of the texts you select for use because inappropriate words just might be given undue prominence by Wordle. The consequences are too ghastly to contemplate. What I found particularly frustrating about this artsy tool, is its affinity for Internet Explorer and dependence on Java! Without these two, you won't do much.

As always, have fun with this new toy. Be a wordsmith and inspire your flock. Help them soar the dizzy heights of word clouds and may their creativity pour down and drench us all!!!!!

Triptico

Well, don't be deceived, this handy teaching and classroom management tool has nothing to do with tripping and falling over. Unless, of course, we are talking about the little rascals tripping over themselves to get to your classes!!! On the contrary, it's about standing out as the 'coolest' teacher in your school. Believe me, it's fab!

About Triptico

Basically, Triptico in a highly interactive and visual online tool that gives educators instant access to a rich bank of ready made resources with great appeal to all sorts of learners. With experience, you can create and save your very own resources in at most 20 minutes. Magic? It does sound like the Midas touch, I know the feeling. Except it's real! Visit www.tripticoplus.com download and start 'edutaining,'-teaching through entertainment.

Why triptico?

Triptico is conspicuous for its buffet of academic dishes: selectors, tools, timers, and the good old quizzes. My acronym for these is STTQs. These infuse uniqueness and creativity into classes availing a diversity of learning, reviewing and practising skills. The handling simplicity is counterbalanced by rich content and numerous colourful, coded apps under each of the four categories. Let's briefly explore these.

STTQs

Tools

These comprise a range of applications the most popular of which are word magnets and order sorters. Word magnets are great for teaching word order, syntax and collocations. You can cut and paste phrases, sentences and paragraphs into the app. It shreds them into colourful word symbols which rotate and move like magnets allowing learners to sort them into the original sequence. Here is a demo that I found very informative:

As you can appreciate, it's quite easy to make, but very effective.

The order sorter app is perfect for exercises in which learners sequence scenarios and events. You can do lots with it in narrative writing and plot based text analysis. It's also suitable for historical texts involving dates and times. For a text like Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Namesake,' which has dated chapters, it is easy to help learners grasp the plot using the order sorter app. It's also wonderful for character tracking in stories and process writing in compositions. For more creative uses of Tools check out justaword.

Timers

There are a variety of timers which are simultaneously quiet and interactive; great in count-up and count-down activities. They are simple but effective due to limited buttons and distractions. The availability of a range of these for your immediate access, significantly reduces lag time between activities. This is how one timer looks. Can you imagine the kind of exercise it would be suitable for? You can definitely think of many of your own. They can be competitive, so you might want to keep an eye on learner reactions as you use them.

Selectors

These are effective learner management tools which are great for breaking up cliques and fostering inclusivity. Through them, you compose groups, keep activity scores and choose types of questions and challenges to solve with learners. They dilute the push-back effect of your biased group picking by introducing the freshness of pleasant surprises because Triptico sorts them out differently most of the time. No more whining and sulking! Even more, they help you track individual performance in class-wide activities and foster healthy competition.

Quizzes

There are multiple free quiz apps in Triptico. The favourites are the whats-the -question jeopardy style ones where you supply learners with answers and challenge them to construct the questions on their own. The skill of thinking backwards is a great way of testing learners' understanding, which leads to higher retention. Quizzes can be quite colourful and attractive too.

The sunny side

The appeal of Triptico lies in the vast array of apps that it hosts which enable challenging, fun and interactive activities through which learners develop an intrinsic sense of material. The more learners are engaged, the more they learn. Additionally, Triptico is easy to use, runs on personal gadgets and is compatible with whiteboards. It has a reliable, speedy customer service, where even the CEO is available to train you and respond to any questions you might have. Well, one would expect to pay an arm and a leg for this tool. Guess what? Shhhh. The premium version costs a couple of burgers and the basic one is absolutely FREE!!!!! Talk of Xmas 24/7/365!

A little grey...

The silver cloud does have a grey lining: Triptico runs only online and is vulnerable to web mood swings. To enjoy it's full benefits, you need a stable connection. Like all technological things, Murphy's law is always hovering around like an evil spirit! Always, always have a Plan B and a Plan C, if necessary.

As I always recommend, you want to take your context into account before planning lessons with Triptico, or any web-based tool for that matter. If learners have smartphones, laptops and PCs that's great. If not, you may want to book access to your school computer lab prior to a lesson. In my school this is the easiest way around issues of gadgets and internet access. Personal gadgets with mobile internet connectivity are another reliable option readily available in most parts of Zimbabwe.

I highly recommend Triptico for engaging and interactive classes with just the right touch of healthy competition. Have a go and report back. Remember it's OK to be a little lazy, your buddy, Triptico, has your back perfectly covered. Have a jolly good week!

Stormboard

Welcome! In this edition we explore yet another great innovation for the 21st century class: Stormboard. Well, no need to run for cover, it's completely harmless. Its rather strange name is a hybrid of 'brainstorm' and 'whiteboard.'

Phew!!! For a moment I though I'd lost you there.

Stormboard uses a virtual shared wall and sticky notes approach to brainstorming and collaboration in real time, especially when participants cannot be in the same place. On a train? In a bar? In bed? Cosy in your spouse's lap? No worries, you can still contribute, organize, discuss, vote, and act on ideas stormed on the shared wall. You won't miss much from class or school. Even better, you can comment on other people’s posts and sticky notes and even edit them!

Access

Stormboard takes a minute to learn and five to master, literally. All you have to do is sign up for a free account which supports up to five participants but comes with limited features. However, for a small subscription you can create class accounts with additional features that we will discuss in a while. For eligible learners and teachers, software is accessible at 'special' education rates! No need to wait. Sign up now and enjoy teaching and learning on the go. Use the link above to access the sign up site. From there on, it's as easy as ABC!

Signed up?

Now that you have signed up, let's do a bit of exploration and then discuss how you make effective use of this tool and make life easy and learning less constraining for you and your charges.

From the video, you must have picked that there are six types of stickies that you can use to add content: text, photo, video, stack, document and sketch. Using these is quite similar to putting up sticky notes or index cards on you classroom whiteboard except that each item will have a comment thread allowing you to discuss and clarify ideas. The colour coding feature reduces clatter and helps organize ideas on the wall. Better still, you can actually link them right there, so it's easy for anyone else who comes on later to follow the thought patterns of earlier participants. As if that's not convenience enough, the voting function can help prioritize ideas and facilitate decision making.

In the classroom

Forget the confinement, Stormboard is a free spirit that transcends the limitations of space. You can extend your classroom to any part of the world where there is access to the internet. There are many language things you can do with Stormboard.

The summer holidays are here, a timely break from this dreary Siberia. So, Stormboard The Perfect Holiday Destination. Apt topic! In your class, instruct learners to initial their stickies and post pictures and even videos of their dream vacation destinations. Ask them to add stickies with vocabulary about their destinations in terms of features, atmosphere, hotels etc. They can comment on each others' stickies and develop ideas. This could be a brilliant brainstorm for a class outing. Imagine the excitement it would generate!

As always, in Literature possibilities are boundless. 'There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.' Discuss with close reference to the play. This is a typical task where learners can paste a sticky per idea and help plan an essay prior to a class or discussion flipped-classroom style. They can state a point, cite textual evidence and link the two to the topic. This way a whole essay can be done in a few minutes. When they come in, there's no fumbling around you get down to the serious business of constructing a standard academic essay.

Is this all necessary?

Of course, my dear Sir/ Madam, it most certainly is. Language learning is a communal thing best undertaken through interaction with others. Stormboard is one of many semiotic social spaces with links to Piaget's constuctivist paradigm which argues that learners construct knowledge through experience, accommodation and assimilation. Even more, there is room here for the social constructivism school of the 70s: Vygotsky and Wood. You can scaffold learners by commenting on their work and asking questions that stretch their imagination. Even more important, are peer comments and contributions in the construction of knowledge which can foster critical thinking. Remember, learners don't have to be in the same room to do this, they can engage in spatial collaboration which lends itself to a recent socio-cultural perspective to language learning: connectivism ,which claims that in the digital age learning occurs via engagement with diverse ideas, opinions and knowledge that may reside in machines! Interesting ideas aren't they?

Benefits

We have already touched on some of these but here is a good list of reasons why you should jazz lessons up a bit and do things differently. Stormboard if great for

collecting ideas.
exploring ideas and expanding ideas.
finding new and different way to activate prior knowledge.
planning and organising ideas.
practicing vocabulary.
mapping out whole projects.
fostering teamwork.
finding useful lexis on a topic.
reviewing materials and ideas.

A real additional joy here is that Stormboard can generate reports in a variety of file formats such as Wordle representations and summary reports in PDF and Excel. Besides, you can import and export these if you subscribe. You also get to play Big Brother and keep track of activities since your last log in. By the way, you and other teachers can hook up and collaborate or plan meetings, projects and even set exams using Stormboard! It's a virtual office of sorts.

However...

Stormboard is completely web-based and that can be a challenge in contexts where learners do not all have unlimited access to WiFi or broadband. This is especially true in my country, Zimbabwe. The stickies' individual displays are not very flexible which makes things a little monotonous. Ensure tasks match learners' developmental levels, otherwise they may get frustrated.

Well, I gotta go. In between, have fun with this tool and keep your learners engaged even when they are away from school.

Padlet

This week we explore aother collaborative tool with a misleading name for its larger-than-life potential. I mean, if a hamlet is a tiny village and a piglet is small, naturally a 'padlet' must be tiny. Well, it's not!

What is it then?

It's a free web application featuring a virtual multi-media wall capable of supporting links, videos, pictures and document files. Basically, it is an on-line noticeboard where learners add virtual sticky notes thereby pooling and storing valuable ideas. Its versatility lies in that it enables face to face and online collaboration, or both. It is compatible with multiple devices: PCs, laptops, tablets and smart phones.

Access

Because it is web based, users need internet access. Its beauty is that students don't need to sign up, and download a special application, or software to use Padlet. However, teachers intending to use it with their classes need to register, which allows them to create as many walls as they need. Signing up allows teachers to customize settings: privacy, access by users, moderation of posts etc. and monitor activities on their walls.

How does it work?

Padlet is very user friendly. I recommend this really short video for an easy-to-follow summary:

As you have noticed, Padlet is not rocket science! Anyone can use it without hassles.

Using Padlet In ELT

Padlet has unlimited potential in ELT; what you can do with it entirely depends on your creativity. The video you watched presented a basic sentence construction exercise using a word. Wasn't it great?

What else can you do? Plenty. I find Padlet handy with brainstorming exercises leading to debates and discursive writing. Learners can post ideas on a topic, say the use of games in English Language lessons! You can post pictures and videos as prompts for short descriptions or narrations. In Literature, the possibilities are mind-boggling. I have used Padlet in poetry analysis and writing. I have a really cute haiku bank. As groups, or individuals, learners can analyse particular stanzas and post their ideas on the virtual wall. Thier colleagues can comment on them and make suggestions for improvement.You can flip your classes: a whole poem can be dissected on the wall before class. Learners can discuss critical analysis questions on a Padlet wall and brainstorm assignments. These walls are permanent piggy banks that they can visit for ideas at later stages. Even though I have not done it, I think you can experiment with a web quest through Padlet! Padlet is malleable and ductile- you can stretch and shape it to fit your own context. Be a 'techsmith' and oversee the co-construction of knowledge in your classes!

Padlet and learning

Scaffolding and co-construction of knowledge

Remember Vygotsky (1978) and socio-cultural theories of learning? I don't blame you if you don't. I didn't like theories either! Anyways, Padlet allows lots of collaboration among learners who can correct and scaffold each other while they co-construct knowledge. You, as the teacher, can follow their activities and scaffold them as well since you can moderate all posts. What more, Padlet is a stethoscope to diagnose learners' understanding of concepts for necessary adjustments. Through reflexive activities, learners' perceptions, knowledge and attitudes are exposed. But don't be a quack, you are a teacher! Remember, Padlet is a great socializing tool especially with new classes. It can effectively draw-out shy and withdrawn learners who can enjoy the privacy of anonymous posting if you sanction it, of course. With Padlet they can emerge from their cocoons, open their colourful wings and fly away. Posting on a class wall motivates learners to produce more output of high quality as they are conscious of the public nature of their posts.

But...

While Padlet is free, easy to use and monitor, it still has spots that you must be aware of. Because on Padlet learners access public galleries with uncensored content, make sure you get parental consent. Peer comments and ratings will need vigilant moderation by the teacher. Even though you have to moderate all posts, you have no live control over content. Posts are not timed so it's difficult to track posts. While posts can be anonymous, Padlet is not great for posting confidential information. Its dependence on net connectivity can be frustrating in some contexts, always have a plan B.

Don't be mournful now, look at the bright side! Help learners paddle up the linguistic and cognitive stream!

Till next week, be creative. Send in your feedback. We always want to know how you fare with these tools.

WebQuests

Find it first!

WebQuests

At once challenging and enriching for learners, a WebQuest (WQ) is a high stakes pupil centered teaching tool developed by Bernie Dodge.

WQ?

No need to look like you have seen a chameleon smoking a pipe! It is exactly what it says: a quest on the web. You prefer a bookish explanation? A WQ is a specific inquiry-based learning process where most, if not all, information required by learners to complete a task is, of course, on the internet! Learners have to find it. That's the quest.

Now, hold on! Don't get too excited, yet. It's not a holiday passport. Far from it. WQs are input intensive, but once done, you can relax while your students are up to their ears in the web. Just ensure that tasks are doable, interestingly adult-like and match learner capacities. Cognitive improper fractions are forbidden and counter-productive. Before we proceed, let's hear form the horse's mouth. Here is What Bernie Dodge has to say:

Making your own WQ

WQ Overview

Easy, in half a dozen steps. Because WQs usually require students to collaborate in groups, clear guidance is imperative. This model captures the long and the short of WQs.

Let's unpack it:

Introduction: gives background information on the topic and often introduces key vocabulary and concepts which learners need to understand to complete tasks.
Task: explains what learners have to do precisely. It should be highly motivating; intrinsically interesting for learners, and firmly rooted in a real-life scenario inspiring substantial role-play.
Information sources: clickable websites that learners explore to complete tasks.
Process: step by step guide to activities and research tasks based on predefined information sources. It should culminate in a product.
Evaluation: learners self-evaluate by comparing and contrasting their products and reflecting on what they learnt; teacher does a process based evaluation of the same.
Conclusion: reflection and summation on experiences and products in order to extend and generalize what was learned.

Sample WQ

Let's literally kill two birds with one stone. Here is a sample WQ that I selected form yhe internet especially for you. Let's see if you can notice why it's good for you!

Sample WQ

Essential Guideline

Establish topic area(s) and 'end products.
Find appropriate web resources: content and linguistic level.
Sort resources according to task stages.
Design the process - tasks, resources, lexical areas, grammatical areas.
Design evaluation stages and concepts.

Some great tips on using WQs can be here. Remember, you are no anesthetist and WQs are not sedatives. Inspire learners!

Why WQs?

Because they are wholesome: communicative, collaborative, creative and critical. A perfect 21st century cognitive diet. These are the hallmarks of a fast-paced reality that demands multi-tasking and creative networking. We are in the business of nourishing the future. Don't foul it. Among a plethora of benefits are the following:

WQs increase student motivation because tasks are often authentic.
Students use real timely resources not date texts.
They are cooperative in nature and require role distribution fostering accountability among learners.
They often involve some level of evaluation which fosters critical and higher order thinking skills in learners.
Learners gain greater competency in using technology.

A word of caution

WQs are all good, but as with all new stuff, do not throw learners into the deep end. You want to gently ease them into the business of being little adults. There's a bit of fine print to WQs which can be treacherous quicksands. Note the following:

WQs aren't ideal for factual recall, simple procedures, or definitions related tasks.
WQs are time vampires, plan carefully.
Learners need your coaching, brace for it.
Expect teething issues with WQ novices.
Source links can become unavailable without warning.
Ensure learners are safe on-line.
Internet access can be an issue in contexts where it is not readily available. You can get around this by teaming up students that can work together or using mobile network data connections.

Don't despair; there are many ready made WQs on the web, but always check for copyright restrictions before downloading. Intellectual theft is a crime! Here are some freebies:

As always, ladies and gentlemen, until next week, be creative! Do share your highs and lows with us, don't be selfish. We would love hear how you fare with WQs.