Internet based projects & Webquests

·     Internet based Projects involve the use of the Internet over a series of lessons. They can be short term or long term and can be done with low level or high level students. The Internet gives the learners a quick access to a wealth of information which they can use to learn more about a specific topic and to carry out their project tasks. 

      They are a structured way for teacher to incorporate internet into the language classroom.

As they are usually used as group activities, they encourage cooperative learning and stimulate interaction among students.

     These projects are meaningful for the students and they feel motivated to work on them because they can be cross over into other subject areas which are interesting for them.

·     They encourage critical thinking skills because the learners have to look for information and transform it to achieve a task, a final outcome, which can be a poster, presentation or a debate.
     To prepare an internet-based project, you need to: choose the project topic, make the task clear, find the resources and decide on the outcome.

Webquests are  inquiry-oriented activities in which some or all the information learners interact with comes from resources on the internet. They can be short term, in which learners visit a selection of sites to find information and use that information to achieve a set of learning aims, or long term, in which they analyse a body of knowledge deeply and then they transform the information acquired into a new product which others can respond to, online or offline. 
Webquests are divided into stages the students should go through:
Introduction: The main topic is introduced. Background information and key vocabulary are given to help the students understand the tasks that follow. In the example below, learners are introduced to the idea of gender discrimination by considering a scenario relevant to their own circumstances. 

Task: This stage explains clearly and precisely what the learners have to do as they work their way to the webquest. It should be motivating for the learners and related to a real life situation. E.g. a role-play in a given scenario such as investigative journalists.

Process: This stage guides the learners through activities and research tasks using Internet-based resources. These resources are presented as active links to websites.
This stage may introduce or recycle areas or grammatical points. It will have one or several products, which form the basis of the evaluation stage. 

Evaluation: In this stage, the students can evaluate themselves by comparing and contrasting their products with the products of their pairs and giving feedback to them. Teachers can also evaluate students’ webquests by comparing them with good webquests to guide them. In the example below, the students are asked to write a composition in which they answer questions about what they have learnt and how effective their contribution to the group was.