Internet-based project work

Have you ever heard about Internet-based project work?

If you haven't, in this post I'm going to summarize the main points.

According to Hockly & Dudeney (2007) Internet-based project work is an structured way for teachers to begin to incorporate the Internet into the language classroom. Group activities encourage cooperative learning, stimulate interaction between students and encourage critical thinking because students are asked to transform information in order to achieve a given task. What's more, they can be used for cross-over projects with other departments or subject areas, offering a more "real-world" look.

What do you need to prepare an Internet-based project?

• You need to choose a project topic.
• Make the task clear (information: biographical, factual, views or opinions).
• Find the resources (which website, which level).
• Decide on the outcome (final purpose).

You can plan a low-level project, which is a great opportunity to tie in word processing and searching and using websites skills; or high-level project which provides learners with the opportunity of examining a serious issue in depth. It encourages more complex thinking and reasoning processes and it’s a good opportunity for cross-curricular applications and for covering other areas of the overall syllabus.

Internet-based simulations

They bring real-life contexts to the classroom, helping our learners to deal with situations that they may come across during foreign travel or in encounters with other English speakers. They also give learners access to authentic websites that provide stimulating and relevant content that enables them to carry out these simulations. They work well in the field of business English where language is very task or goal-oriented and with general English learners.
Webquests
They are projects in which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied
from the Internet. According to their duration, there are two types of webquests.

• Short-term webquests: A learner will have grapled with a significant amount of new information and made sense of it. It may spread over a period of a couple of classes or so, and will involve learners in visiting a selection of sites to find information in class to achieve a set of learning aims.
• Longer-term webquests: A learner will have analysed a body of knowledge deeply, transforming it in some way, creating sth that others can respond to, turning the information into a new product (a report, a presentation, interview, etc). It may last a few weeks or a term.

Steps to create your own Webquest

First of all, you'll have to select the websites you are going to include in your Webquest. According to Hockly & Dudeney (2007), you should remember to check accuracy (is the content of the page reliable?), currency (is it up-to-date?), content (is the site interesting and stimulating?) and functionality (does the site work well? Are there any broken links?). 

Then, choose a Webquest builder such as http://zunal.com/ and start planning your project. 

Step 1 – Introduction: it involves giving background information on the topic, key vocabulary and concepts which learners will need to understand in order to complete the tasks. 

Step 2 – Task: It explains clearly and precisely what the learners will have
to do as they work their way through the webquest. It should be interesting
and motivating, firmly related to real-life situation.

Step 3 – Process: It guides the learners though a set of activities and research tasks, using a set of predefined resources (Internet-based, as a set of active links to websites within the task document and a language-based webquest introduces or recycles lexical areas or grammatical points which are essential to the task). Instruction should be clear and organised. 

Step 4 – Evaluation: It can involve teacher evaluation and learners in self evaluation, comparing and contrasting what they have produced with other learners, and giving feedback on what they feel they have learnt and achieved.

You can access the Webquest I've created about Healthy eating clicking here.

Sources
Hockly, N., & Dudeney, G. (2007) Chapter 3 “Using websites”. In How to Teach English with Technology. Essex: Pearson. 

Hockly, N., & Dudeney, G. (2007) Chapter 4 “Internet based project work”. In How to Teach English with Technology. Essex: Pearson.