Using Web Quest as Teaching Resource

http://algernon08.tripod.com/index.html

The link above is a Literature Web Quest my course mate & I had done last semester for one of our Literature pedagogical module. The aim of this Web Quest is to get Secondary One Literature students to explore deep into the short story, "Flowers for Algernon", written by Daniel Keyes.

In this Web Quest, different groups of students get the chance to explore issues, like, the accuracy of the measure of people's I.Q. & personality using the I.Q. test & the Rorschach Test (a.k.a. the Inkblot test) respectively. Other students will get to explore more of the story's content as they are tasked to produce a trailer for this story. As a result, students are made to think about the ideologies embedded in tests meant to gauge different aspects of humans.

As students are engaging in their tasks, they are rendered to think analytically & critically with regard to the issue they have at hands. This is an engagement of informal knowledge, for students are working with contents of a short story. At the same time, systematic knowledge is also employed as links are given to them in relation to the task they have been assigned to. FOr instance, groups which specialise in the I.Q. test are given weblinks to know more about the making & functions of I.Q. tests. Through this, these students will get to know more about everything involving I.Q. tests, thereby, tapping deep into the systematic knowledge. Lastly, students will also tap into their transformative knowledge as they have to interact what they have learned & create a product (in this case, an I.Q. test).

Note how multimodality is utilised to a high extent in this webquest, as students not only work with new media (the Internet, video-recording, movie-making programs), they also need to work with the traditional materials, such as, writings, amongst others. Furthermore, there is an online discussion board for students to air their views & any contributions they might have regarding their assignments or the short story in general.

The development of Students' cognitive skills is palpable here.