Webquest

=Web-quest: This is a blog entry which describes my reflections after playing with Webquests. I chose a the photo below of a desaparecida from Argentina to serve as my artifact for reflection.=

Autumn’s Assessment of Webquest thinking

foto de una desaparecida del muro
My first reaction as I browsed webquests, was why haven’t I made a webquest yet and how difficult are they too make? Webquests that are designed with purposeful objectives related to foreign language learning seem like a very useful tool that students could use to promote their understanding of both language and culture. I particularly like how they are designed like a lesson plan, with specific introduction, tasks, processes and evaluation methods revealed to students. It feels very much like an exciting, mysterious treasure hunt. ====I see webquest as an affordance in that it organizes the useful links for the students in advance so that the students are not wasting time searching the web for what they need, or getting lost in the complexity of URL titles that they may be instructed to use.==== From a more critical eye, I noticed that many of the foreign language webquests are 1) written in English and 2) related to travel and food. For me, the emphasis on food, travel and festivities presents a limited view of the Spanish speaking world in which products and practices are emphasized but not perspectives. (Products, practices and perspectives are the three P’s in “Culture” for the National Standards) However when I modified my search to “webquest español” in lieu of “webquest spanish” which was my first search, I was able to find one site dedicated to the study of “__ [|los desaparecidos de Argentina”] __ which I knew was a content that Lucrecia was working on for her Project Understanding. As I played with this webquest, I found it to be a good resource for students at advanced levels and I recommended it to Lucrecia. It was written in Spanish and has historical information about the “Dirty Wars” of Argentina. It allows you to click on a link to see the wall in Argentina which has the names and artistic images dedicated to the disappeared. This is an example of situated practice where the students are immersed in Spanish text and authentic images which serve as an inspiration for the next phase of the project. The transformed practice piece is represented in the project itself which requires the students to work in a small community of thinkers to create their own memorial. I have chosen for my artifact to use the photo above of a woman from “el muro de memorias”, a woman that disappeared mysteriously during the dirty wars. I chose this as an artifact because it is a tug on the emotional intensity that this context represents. The students should potentially develop emotional connections while exploring the concept of “los desaparecidos”. They may be able to relate this to any personal suffering they have experienced in their lives or the loss of someone they loved, and this in turn will ideally transform their understanding of the historical context of the Argentinian dictatorship and also personally transform their understanding of how to deal with loss or hardship. They may also reflect about the purpose of memorials in the process of creating their own. What message do they portray? What is the purpose? How do people mourn a loss? If I were to transform this webquest I would add this important piece of reflection and point the students towards these bigger essential questions. In terms of thinking together in community using technology, I picture an image in my mind of a group of students hovered around a computer, gasping in oohs and aahs while they read the horrid historical facts of Argentina’s dirty war, asking questions such as, “They are all dead? OMG!” and interacting with the computer in a way they may interact with an interesting story. Thinking is reflecting, mentally revising and personally connecting in a way that a new mental image is formed in your head. Thinking in community relates to the way in which these mental images are shared, connections are made between thinkers and the mental images are then transformed from interaction with another’s ideas and perspectives. The technology component for me is another type of “thinker” to interact with, because like this webquest, the technology represents one way to view the human condition, which is found in real images and real text authored by a real person. Blake wrote that humans interact with computers politely just as they would a real person. Using technology is simply interacting with other humans on another level. The photo of the woman from Argentina is an artifact that represents the human condition and the activity designed for the webquest is intended to cause the students to reflect on how humans mourn loss. __ [] __