Project-based teaching and Web-Projects:
an Overview

 Introduction: why computerization?

It’s been part of our teaching history that teachers grabbed every tool within their reach to make their teaching effective enough- especially visually – be it stylus to mark on the clay or a chalk to write on the black board. Then came the first batch of new technological tools such as photography, filmstrips, radio and televisions. Teachers effectively used them to extend the range of what they could teach. Tools, thus always helped teachers to illustrate ideas in different ways in to bring in new materials to students and motivate learning.

Now, the emergence of technologies such as computers and internet brought about different genre in the field of education especially the way they are used as teaching tools. Unlike the earlier tools, the new technologies are learner- centered and learner- operated. They pronounced the final word to end the teacher monopoly in the business of teaching-learner situation.

 Objective

The purpose of involving pupils in web-projects is to enable them develop independent theme-based web pages in English where they publish what they gather about a given/chosen topic.

How are the topics chosen or arrived at?

 Topics

The themes of the projects are basically drawn from the classroom curriculum but it does not overtly linked with the topics in the course book. The teachers, therefore, decide on a topic for which the pupils get initial help from their course books.

However, to extend their knowledge of the topic and to improve their write ups, pupils are expected to depend on Net browsing or other resources. Once the participants cross the limits of their course books and begin to be on their own, no one knows exactly what they are going to learn over the next few months. The final shape of the project, therefore, evolves from the co-operative work of all involved.

Presently there are 4 groups working on four different themes viz.

1. Traditional handicrafts of Oman
2. Desert life in Oman
3. Architecture in Oman: traditional and modern
4. Oman’s Coast: tourist perspective

How is the work in the project carried out?

 Procedure

Each theme is assigned to a group of 6-8 boys and these groups remain together till they publish their work. Each new project begins with new groupings of boys. During a project, they communicate and exchange information via email and they do the work outside school hours. Their work goes on in stages:

Stage One

 Stage Two

 What is the time frame for each of these stages?

Timeline

Phases in the project:

1. Getting ready:
   forming groups. choosing group leaders, checking their computer skills etc
2. Planning:
   choosing a theme, distributing the work between participants & work out frame-work for their activities
3. Exchanging:
4. Organizing the publication:
5. Publishing:
6. Closing:

What is the role of the teacher?

Teacher’s Role

To develop learners who can determine the overall direction of their learning independently, teachers, thus, have to play the new role of a guide leading the field trip in the information landscape. What are the duties of a guide?

·        Helping them design a frame-work for their projects

·        Keeping the pupils focused on the work they are involved. Otherwise, they can be distracted and go astray.

·        Following up what’s happening between peers and their external collaborators: pupils might leave a copy of their mail to the teacher as well.

·        Providing them technical as well as linguistic help where necessary

 Conclusion

Information and communication technologies of the Internet are expected to be useful to develop more accomplished learners overall. Such technologies are tools with multiple capabilities and the range of them in encouraging active learning is staggering. Thus these digital tools propose to transform the traditional institutional practices in educational arena in the following ways:

a.       Enhances Student Learning - Students gain rich insights from the diversity of exchanges.

b.      Encourages Ownership of Ideas - Each student group shapes a part of the interaction for the group.

c.       Develops Reading/Writing Skills - Students use written communication skills to exchange ideas with distant peers.

d.      Enhances Teaching Curriculum - These projects provide an exciting and innovative forum for teaching traditional subjects.

e.       Stimulates Teacher Creativity - Teachers develop new instructional techniques by sharing project ideas with colleagues around the world.

f.        Expands Teaching and Learning Horizons – Such projects as these take students beyond the classroom to draw on various resources for information, making them more aware of their social and physical surroundings.

g.       Integrates Computer and Telecommunications Technology - Teachers and students learn technical skills as they use telecomputing to work cooperatively with people in distant locations.

Groups of pupils work together on their computers for a relatively short period of time, but the links made when teachers and students share ideas and feelings often last longer than the session of a project. As a consequence of this collaboration, both students and teachers find their interest in learning renewed.