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aspectsisthattheyserveasavehicleforthecombinationofcomputerskillstraining
(teachinghowtousesearchenginesproperly,howtosearchwebsitesforspecific
information,howtoextracttextorgraphicsfromtheInternet),languagedevelopment
(thestrategiesofskimmingandscanning,textextractionandfull-sentence
reconstruction,comparinginformation,summarizingandreportinginEnglish-see
Lee,2001)anddemonstrationofavastarrayofresourcesavailableontheWeb.One
importantissueraisedbyChalmers(2003a)isthateducatorsshouldnotonlychannel
students'useoftheWebthroughafewselected"portal"sites,givingstudentsaccessto
resourceswanted,butshouldequipthemwithevaluationandcriticalthinkingskills
necessaryforautonomoususeoftheWeb.Someoftheusesofscavengerhuntsthat
canbementionedhereareonlinecampusorientationactivity(Hollandsworth,2001);
onlinenewspaperscurrentaffairsupdate(Brown,1999)orfindingresourcesforthe
preparationoforalpresentations(Kung,2003).
AsStarr(1999a)notes,thehuntsareextremelyflexibleactivitieswhichcanbe
gearedtoanythematicareasoastoprovidestudentswithbothwebsearchingskillsand
subjectmatterknowledgeofvaryingdegreesofcomplexityaswellasguidancetosuit
studentsatdifferentlanguagelevels.Also,theyareadaptabletoavarietyofclassroom
modesofwork(amainstreamwholeclassactivity,aninformationgapteamactivityor
individualextensionactivity).
Treasurehuntsareactivitiesthatfosterconstructivistlearning,forratherthanbeing
basedonthetransmissionofknowledgefromteachertolearner,theyprovidelearners
withthemotivation,resourcesandguidancetohelpthemconstructknowledge(Luzon
Marco,2001a).AsChalmers'(2003a)argumentshows,wheninvolvedinscavenger
hunttasks,learnersgainconfidenceinusingreferencesection,databases,andother
materialsavailableinthelibraryandontheInternet,exploitingtechnologyforresearch.
Obviously,asanytypeoflanguageactivity,theclassroomimplementationofscavenger
huntscanalsohavesomepotentialthreatsanddangers.AsLee(2001)notes,searching
theWebdecreases(slightlyortoagreatextent,dependingonthespeedofInternet
connection)thetimeavailableforlanguagelearning,andunlessstudentsarewell-
instructedinsearchengineuse,thetimeconsumedbysearchingmaynotbringtheexpected
benefitsintermsoflanguagelearning,causingfrustrationofstudentsandattemptsat
cheating.
1.1.3.Constructingtreasurehunts
Whenconstructingcustomisedtreasurehunts,teachersareadvisedtofollowthe
procedureoutlinedinthefollowingsteps:
1.Establishingaims,intermsoflanguageskills(whatskillsstudentsaregoingto
develop),languagematerial(whatvocabularyorstructureswillbenecessaryduring
thehunt)andcomputerskills(whatoperationswillhavetobeexecuted).
2.Puttingdownthequestionsforstudentstofindanswerstointheformofatable/
worksheet/True-Falsesentences/textwithmistakestobecorrected.