WHAT IS HOT POTATOES?

Hot Potatoes is a set of six author's tools, developed by the equipment (team) of the University of Victory CALL Laboratory Research and Development, which allow you to elaborate interactive exercises based on web pages of six basic types.

The interactivity of the exercises is obtained by means of JavaScript (a "Script" is a bit of code that does something in a web page). This code is done by a language called JavaScript invented by Netscape. Later you can publish the above mentioned pages in a servant Web. 

In addition, the program is designed in order that you could personalize almost all the characteristics of the pages. Therefore, if you know something of HTML code or of JavaScript, you will be able to do any change that you wish in the way of working of the exercises or in the format of the pages.

From the year 2009 it is a program freeware, previously it was free for teachers who were using the non-profit-making program but it was necessary to register the program; in opposite case, the program did not have a complete functionality and took limitations as the number of questions that they can put in an exercise, but it already went on to the history.

Utilization: The information editable from every type of exercise is saved in a specific file of every HP's application. From the same one there will be generated the final interactive document in format *.HTML. This page is raised to the web servant. The pupil does not need to have the program installed in his equipment Hot Potatoes to realize every exercise. It is only needed to accede using an Internet browser as Internet Explorer 5.5 or Superior.

How to Prepare a Web Quest for ESL Students

WebQuests are one way to motivate ESL students to learn English and raise their academic proficiency. Following these step-by-step instructions, you can prepare a WebQuest for ESL students to do at school.
 

Instructions

1.      Decide on a WebQuest topic that is motivating for your students. You can find this information by conducting an in-class survey or simply by taking a show of hands in class. Have a second or third preference in case you cannot find enough websites.

2.      Conduct thorough research to see available sites that you can use for your WebQuest topic. Not every site is suitable. Check for linguistic, thematic and syntactic appropriateness, and make sure the link is active.

3.      Skim and scan the site. Familiarize yourself with content, how to navigate the site and the kinds of information students will learn.

4.      Design a series of interesting questions based on the website that direct students to the site or to various links and tabs. For differentiated instruction, include a wide variety of questions.

5.      Explain the purpose of the WebQuest beforehand with your students in class. Make sure they understand what is expected of them and how they are expected to behave during the WebQuest session.

6.      Take your students to the computer lab and distribute the WebQuest worksheet. Encourage students to answer as many questions as possible.

7.      Have students sit in pairs or groups of three to perform the WebQuest.

8.      Have students finished the WebQuest at home or in class (two sessions are sufficient).

9.      Decide if you will grade the WebQuest and on the criteria for grading (if relevant to subject matter).

10. Ask students to reflect on their work during the WebQuest session and, particularly, if they learned something from it and how the activity could be improved.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO WebQuests

  One of the most current activities effected by the pupils in Internet is the search of information, often with help of the search engines as Google, Alta Vista or Yahoo. Nevertheless, these investigations are difficult activities that take a lot of time and that can turn out to be frustrating if the aims are not reflected clearly and explained initially.

  WebQuests is structured and guided activities that avoid these obstacles providing a definite well task to the pupils, as well as the resources and the slogans that allow them to realize them.

  Instead of losing hours in search of the information, the pupils appropriate, interprets and exploits, the specific information that the teacher assigns them.

  To investigate in the Web is simple and of simple application, since it is easy to realize and it is allowed that both raw and expert in Internet they take part. Investigating in the web one incorporates the students in effective tasks, stimulates to the collaboration and discussion, and is of easy integration in the school curriculum.

  The teacher must suggest a topic of exploration and point at some sites of the Web where the pupil will look for the information that they need. As the teachers go familiarizing themselves with the web and the mechanisms of search, and they learn to develop strategies of optimization of his knowledge across the communication, search and processing of information, they pass to propose the topics and the pupils are going to look only for the solutions. In the last state of total autonomy, the students can propose topics of interest to the teacher who happens to choose between them what is more suitable for the personal learning and of the group.

  That of the WebQuest, it is a didactic strategy in which the pupils (from half of primary up to university) are those who really construct the knowledge that then they are going to learn. One organizes them in groups; roles are assigned to them and have to elaborate a product that goes from a presentation, or a document, up to a theatrical staging or a wireless script, etc., representing as exactly as possible the different positions (attitudes) of the roles. It is a very promising design.

  This is not only a new way in order that the teachers teach, but also is a new way in order that the pupils learn. And finally, here you have two of the most important sites about WebQuests

http://www.world-english.org/webquests.htm
http://www.webquest.org/

Webquest!

What is it? 

"A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet" (Dodge, 1995) 

    A WebQuest is built around an attractive task which causes higher knowledges in a short time! Also, we can say that a WebQuest is an assignment which asks students to use the World Wide Web to learn about and/or synthesize their knowledge a specific topic. It's about doing something with the information that students find. A Webquest is, basically,  present a problem to students, to solve a hypothetical problem, a process guide and a set of predefined resources accessible via the WWW. The students should resolve the problems that the proffesor gives them (it can be write in paper or digital) using the resources offered on the Internet. The student's thoughts can be creative and critical and involve problem solving, trial statement, analysis or synthesis. The task must be something more than simply answer questions. Ideally, it should correspond to something that in normal life do students outside of school.

  Simpler web activities designed for students to investigate and collect new knowledge from web-based sources can also be a more engaging and effective replacement for read-the-chapter-and-complete-the-review-questions.  This tutorial will walk you through the basics to create a simple or more elaborate activity.

• The assignment can be given on paper, certainly the simplest and most portable option. 

• A webquest assignment can also be given on the web itself by sending students to a web page which serves as the "home base" for the student’s information search.

• You can also present a webquest using some other multi-media software such as Hyperstudio or Powerpoint.

    

Why should you take the time to create a webquest?

     The best reason is that, like any carefully planned lesson, a good webquest makes learning interesting for your students. Beyond that, however, several other factors make webquests a powerful learning tool.

• First, 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.

• Webquests are a way to let students work at their own pace, either individually or in teams.

• 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 offer a different, more dynamic approach to teaching the value of research.

• 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.

 Let watch a video to learn how to make a webquest.