Web-based teaching aids furthered
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WebQuest, a pedagogic tool, is gaining in popularity
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The best way to compose a webquest is to scan through existing webquests relevant to your subject.
This edition of NetSpeak reviews on-line tools/services that strengthen and enliven the pedagogic process.
WebQuest
There cannot be a disagreement on the relevance of using Web as a teaching/ learning platform. In fact, these days no one can ever imagine formulating a teaching activity without the Web.
A pedagogic tool gaining in popularity among the academic fraternity is WebQuest, a teaching/learning aid that extensively uses web-based resources/applications (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebQuest).
A WebQuest can be considered as a structured description of a class assignment that systematically guides the students to a variety of web- based resources to achieve a specific learning outcome. In a specific webquest assignment, the instructor presents an introduction to the subject, provides an overview of the task to be performed and explains the various steps involved in a detailed fashion. The advantage here is that the tool enables the teacher to make his/her assignment more lively/organic. Unlike in the usual on-line learning projects in which the student uses the Web in an ad-hoc/unstructured/random fashion, here he/she uses it in a prescribed format. Naturally, this could make him/her more focussed/efficient.
To further your knowledge on WebQuest, watch some of the presentations on this subject available here: http://www.slideshare.net/tag/ webquests. If you wish to know how a Webquest looks like, have a look at Zunal ( http://www.zunal.com/index.php), a web site that hosts numerous webquests on almost all popular subjects.
For instance, the webquest, “Compound Interest: The Ninth Wonder of the World” (http://zunal.com/process. php?user=23103) is a good one to explore. Besides storing a variety of webquests, Zunal lets you create/publish your own webquests too. The service allows one to create a webquest with content blocks such as title, task, process (the slot to describe the steps involved, the resources to access and the like), evaluation, conclusion and so on.
As already mentioned, the best way to compose a webquest is to scan through existing webquests relevant to your subject. Lots of webquests are being generated on the Web and one good place to locate them is the search link (http://webquest.org/search/) at WebQuest.org.
Anki
Another learning tool worth a try is Anki, a software that helps you memorise things efficiently and with ease. Besides the ability to comprehend things, skill to remember them as time passes is equally important for being successful in any learning endeavour. One technique commonly adopted to retain a lesson (or an information chunk) in one’s memory is to review what has been taught. When we repeat a lesson several times the possibility of forgetting it declines.
However, reviewing it many times on the same day may not be that effective. The lesson may fade from our memory, if we fail to review it at a later stage. To retain the lesson, we need to repeat it periodically. This is the premise in which the memory aid software Anki (http://ichi2.net/anki/index.html) has been built. You can use Anki either off-line (by installing the desktop software) or on-line — with its web-based application (http://anki.ichi2.net/).
Many links into one
When one needs to share a few links with his/her friends, usually he/she types down each of the links and then mail them. Now, instead of sending each of the links separately, if one can send one link that represents all the links in the collection, life becomes easier both for the sender and the recipient.
The on-line service Sqworl ( http://www.sqworl.com/index.php) that combines a set of links into one shorter link ideally serves the purpose. When the recipient opens this link, Sqworl generates a web page filled with thumbnails of each of the web pages included in the collection. So, a teacher who wishes to share a series of links pertaining to a theme/subject, can use this service to generate a single link that represents the link series. You may also try Minmu (http://minmu.net/), a service similar to Sqworl.
One of the Net-based technologies that live up to its promise is Wiki. The plethora of on-line services based on this technology (like Wikipedia) attests to this observation.
Cooking is certainly an art and possessing such a skill is indeed a great achievement. If you are one of those who love cooking, then you may like the cooking encyclopedia, Foodista ( http://www.foodista.com/). This Wikipedia-type encyclopedia lets anyone on the web to add/edit cooking related information.
Concharto (http://www. concharto.org/search/eventsearch.htm), a world atlas of historical events that can be edited by anyone on the Web is yet another Wiki-based on-line application worth a look.
Google insights
Factors such as searcher’s geographic location and demography could also influence the search term being used to locate a resource.
This knowledge on the popular terms used by web searchers across different regions/time periods may serve as a valuable aid to online researchers. It is a reasonably authentic means to know broadly the needs/requirements/ambitions/trends of the on-line world. Google’s recently launched service ‘Google search insights’ ( http://www.google.com/insights/search/), which provides a variety of search- related information (like search volume for a term across different geographic locations during a specific time period), is a good resource for this end.
J. MURALI
He can be contacted at: jmurali@gmail.com
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