Evaluating Websites

The website we decided to evaluate was bogglesworldesl.com. An enjoyable and informative website that offers ESL teachers a plethora of material for use in the classroom during lessons.
We evaluated the website based on the following criteria: purpose, authority, objectivity, appropriateness, relevance, currency, responsibility, clarity, accessibility.
Purpose: the website is a .com website meaning that it is either a commercial or personal website. In this case, it seems to be a mixture of a both.
Authority: The creators of the website are a group of ESL teachers located in Asia and North America. The group includes Chris Gunn (web and materials design), Stephen Gordon and Cam Lirette (editors and content creation) and Thomas Lovelle (writer and content direction). It appears to be an authentic website with no hidden agenda.
Objectivity: the website is objective and there doesn't seem to be any kind of bias.
Relevance/Appropriateness: The website is appropriate for its goal. It contains ESL teaching materials that are appropriate and good for a variety of levels and ages, most especially K7 teachers. The website and materials are well written and include lessons plans that can make a teacher's life much easier.
Currency: The website's content seems to be current. From what we saw, there didn't seem to be anything outdated. Although, this was hard to confirm since there doesn't appear to be a date for when the website was last updated. A very important point is that the website contains no dead links which can be very irritating and detrimental to a website.
Responsibility: The authors are upfront and honest about their website and what they hope to accomplish. While it is a primarily free website, they aren't adverse to donations and such. They can be contacted via the email gunnchris@bogglesworldesl.com. There doesn't seem to be a section on the website for references or credit but it's possibly because they created all the material or content. Although, this is doubtful.
Clarity: The website is very clear and somewhat colorful and visually appealing. Finding information is easy. On the other hand, a slight drawback is that the text is somewhat cluttered. There are graphics that add to the visual appeal of the website rather than detract from it. As far as we could see, there is only 1 advertisement on the website and it quite small and doesn't interfere with the website in any way. The pages and links are well organized and there didn't seem to be any spelling, grammatical or word-usage mistakes.
Accessibility: The website is open, free to use, and can be accessed by all. The site loads very quickly and has no problems as far as we could see. It is clear and easy to navigate from page to page and from link to link. There are no dead links or dead pages. As far as a text-only version goes, there doesn't seem to be an option to view the website in that form, although, this can be remedied by using Google's cached feature and choosing the "text-only" option.

Wordle in EDU 401

The role of WebQuests in learning a foreign/second language

It is interesting to me in this course exactly how much new information I have gleaned that I was completely unaware of.
Even though I consider myself a complete and total Digital Native, I have never in my life even heard of the term "webquest" before last week. You may be wondering at this point, "what in God's name is a webquest??"

Bernie Dodge, of San Diego State University, is generally credited with being the original creator of the webquest concept. He defines it quite adequately as an "inquiry oriented
activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources
on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing."
To put it simply, the teacher is basically designing a small quest or "treasure hunt of information" that students will complete by searching on the World Wide Web.

To those who are intrigued by this concept, you may be wondering what the teacher's role is throughout the whole webquest. Basically, the teacher can choose a ready-made webquest for the students, or he/she can design a completely new one by choosing out of the many choices available on the internet. My personal favorite was Zunal.com. The teacher can then decide exactly how much information to provide the students with and how much to let the students find on their own.

Which brings me to my next point. The role of the students. Well, basically, the students will be doing most of the work. After all, the webquest IS for them. Webquests are a prime example of the kind of task that could be used in a task-based or "project-based" language learning approach to teaching. The students will be accomplishing activities and tasks that are relevant to their own lives, all while being exposed to many instances of authentic language.

In most cases, the students will be working in groups and collaborating with each other in order to accomplish the tasks. Completing the webquest, in most cases, is often a case of team work. It also requires a high level of critical thinking. The students should not be spoon fed every bit of information but must search for what they need themselves, employing their own faculties of judgement and criticisms to decide on what to use or not use.

As a future EFL teacher, I am quite intrigued by webquests. While I can clearly see their inherent value, if asked whether or not I would use them with my future students, I would have to answer, "it depends." My answer depends on a lot of factors. Would my students be interested in the first place? Would they enjoy the webquest and learn from it, or would they think that I'm just being lazy and want to waste their time? Would I be allowed to try a webquest on my students? Or would I be brutally rebuffed from even attempting it from the school/government administration?

If all these factors were in my favor, then I probably would indeed use webquests during lessons.