"I Need a Holiday" WebQuest wins EMBED award

Last May, when schools were closed and lessons were delivered remotely, Ms Elaine Xuereb worked on a small task-based project with her Year 7 students. She designed a WebQuest using PowerPoint entitled ‘I Need a Holiday’ with the intent of offering her Year 7, Track 3 learners of English an alternative learning experience. The students worked in groups of 3 on this week-long project and relied completely on the use of technology to complete the tasks.

The purpose of this project was for students to plan a four-day trip to London for the whole class. They had to prepare a travel proposal and poster with all the necessary trip details and eventually persuade the rest of their class that their travel proposal is the ideal holiday for the class.

To organise their holiday, students had to collaborate in groups so during the first online meeting/lesson of the week on Microsoft Teams, Ms Xuereb set the groups that the students were going to work in and uploaded the WebQuest making sure that the learners were briefed and exposed to the key parts of the project.

As a team, the first task required them to decide on dates and search for flights. Every student then took on 1 of 3 roles and was in charge of finding information on a particular aspect of the holiday. During the week, students then started navigating the WebQuest, followed the instructions and looked up the necessary information by accessing predefined hyperlinked web sources according to their role. The team then came together and set up video calls and online meetings on Teams where they evaluated and reflected on the information collected individually and planned the holiday, prepared a travel proposal, and created a travel poster. During the last online lesson of the week the groups took turns to present their travel proposals and posters to their peers and when all the proposals were presented, each student voted for their favourite travel proposal through a class poll the teacher created in the virtual class on Microsoft Teams. Finally, as homework, the students were given a follow-up writing task for the following week, in which they had to write an email to a friend telling them to join them on the trip.

Ms Xuereb felt that students were immediately intrigued by the WebQuest. It provided them with a challenging but constructive undertaking. All the students had the same task, but no one produced the same end product. The posters and presentations they created showed a great amount of creativity, in both their appearance and content. There was a high level of involvement from all participants.

After the first session’s initial introduction to orient students with the WebQuest, the teacher’s role during this process was purely one of a guide. She messaged students to see how they were getting on, answer any queries, evaluate their performance and contribution, and clarify any possible issues that arose.

From a pedagogical point of view, through this project the pupils practised all the four language skills by fulfilling realistic tasks such as booking a flight and accommodation using authentic websites, along with many other core skills such as information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, flexibility, self-direction and problem solving. The students worked in groups and used the Internet to construct their own knowledge and consolidated that knowledge by explaining it to others.

Every year, the Directorate for Digital Literacy and Transversal Skills organizes the Embed Awards to celebrate good pedagogical practices through technology-mediated learning activities, carried out over a period of time. Ms Xuereb submitted this modest project and placed 2nd in the Secondary Years Category.

Congratulations to Ms Xuereb for the award! We're proud of having a teacher such as her in our department :)