Webquest

= **Chasing Carlos and Cristina Cruz** =

This webquest can also be found on my Tumblr blog and to the left on the Blog Selections page in which I discussed the "warrant" task that was the culminating assignment from the webquest. The following text comes from the conclusion of the webquest (the link is above, then click on "conclusion" to the left of the page that comes up). I had not read this conclusion prior to posting on my blog, and I actually find this to be the most intriguing part of the webquest itself, and I wonder why it is merely tacked on as a conclusion and not part of the webquest itself.


 * Conclusion **

Thank you for your help in the arrest of Carlos and Cristina Cruz! Next time they will be sure to think twice before committing a crime now that we have you on our team!

During the investigation process you should have learned a lot about your specific area of expertise: culture, geography, history, or art, in addition to learning from the members of your group. Hopefully, you now realize how important it is that everyone does his or her part and cooperates with the group in order to be successful. You should also have a better understanding of Spain, Argentina and Mexico and come to appreciate that there are many differences among the Spanish speaking countries of the world.

For further thought, think about these questions and check out these links! (The links will open in new windows, so be sure to close them when you are done.)
 * How do the differences among the Hispanic cultures compare to the differences among the subcultures of American socitey?
 * How do the histories of Spain, Argentina, and Mexico affect their modern culture?
 * How can the geography of a country affect life in the country?
 * What does art reflect about a culture?
 * Weather Base
 * Travel Sur
 * Festivals and Traditions of Argentina
 * The Tarhumana
 * Cinco de Mayo
 * Business Culture in Spain

This portion of the webquest really get at the perspectives of the cultures studied, and the students would be able to make discoveries about the different languacultures that are found within each country, and perhaps the sub-languacultures within the larger languaculture. If the students were to create blog entries that answered or attempted to answer the given questions, and comment on other students' thoughts and opinions, it would create such a rich community of thinkers about a languaculture(s) that differ (or perhaps are similar) to the one that they belong to. I find myself asking, Why is this part of the conclusion? Is this the beginning of a larger unit? Is this only a place for students who are more motivated to learn about Spanish speaking cultures? I think this conclusion is as worthwhile if not more so than the entire webquest preceding it. This is much more geared to a community of thinkers, and even could open the door to a much larger cross-cultural community of thinkers, perhaps attracting people to think and comment who are from different languacultures, the ones the students are studying. Imagine the possiblities for learning the unique perspective of that new languaculture for both parties through blogging or some other sharing site. This conclusion made me think of what Lazo-Wilson and Lozano Espejo say in their chapter about blog and film in //Second Language Teaching and Learning in the Net Generation// (Oxford & Oxford, 2009). They give an example of how a blog between the US and Colombia could be a form of scaffolding and collaborative learning by students commenting on the language used by the Spanish language learners, and the cultural differences between the two countries. When I read this example, it makes me want to do the same thing in my classroom to expose my students to different languacultures through this available technology to enrich their second language learning experience.