Week 6 Refining Project

My project task lost its flow when I suddenly realized that I can’t implement the project in week 6 and week 7 like the others due to the midterm exam of my students. So I had to opt for a project plan instead of a project report. This was quite frustrating as I was thoroughly excited about implementing it. The consolation is I’ve more time to refine the project so that when the students come back to the classes after their midterm exam, I have a well-thought-out project to offer them. I have prepared my Zunal WebQuest for the project last week (as an extra task) http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=182851. As per Courtney’s suggestion I added a category to the rubric (I also entailed the rubric task with the project so that all finally came together to fit in the project). I also added an additional link to my process page this week.

Two significant changes that I am planning to bring are –

1. Instead of implementing the project with just one group of 42 students undertaking Classics in Translation I course, I’ll include another group of 49 who are also studying the same course. The regular attendees are 35 and 45 respectively. 

2. My project plan was to create a class wiki so that students can upload their Vimeo links there. But as I’m already using a blog http://tahsinay.blogspot.com/2013/02/your-task.html for a specific web search task by introducing Noodletools to both the groups, I am planning to use the blog where they’ll upload their links http://tahsinay.blogspot.com/2013/02/your-assignment.html. Peer evaluation can be easily done at Vimeo as comments for a specific video.

I will use the following references to support my planned change:

1. Susan Gaer’s "Less Teaching and More Learning"

2. Jo-Ellen Tannenbaum’s "Practical Ideas On Alternative Assessment For ESL Students" 

3. Bernie Dodge’s "Some Thoughts about WebQuests"

4. Bernie Dodge’s interview

Project related follow-up activity will include peer evaluation. Students must watch others’ role play and post comment at least about one video on Vimeo. I’m also planning to have a follow-up activity in the form of a questionnaire where students will analyze the impact of the project. I'm still brainstorming with this part and thinking of adding the following yes/no questions:

1. Did you enjoy doing the task?
2. Did you explore the web for this task?
3. Did you practice using English in a more interesting and fruitful manner?
4. Did you groom and improve yourself?

5. Was the task different from a traditional assignment given in other literature courses?

But more substantial questions should be added for an evaluation of the task from the students' point of view. I already gave a questionnaire to the students initially just to assess their ‘technology and web-related exposure.’ 

I'll devote the next week in writing down the first draft to be sent to a classmate.