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My project involved
setting up a Web site for the syllabus for 4 Spanish 105 classes.
Students had a readily available alternative to the paper syllabus
and it could be viewed by prospective students too.
Links to many varied sites of Hispanic interest provided students
with starting points from which to search for other sites of personal
interest. Technical assistance was provided by Shaoping Moss and
Jenni Lund and student Luis Rosero. Because of their expertise
the project was less daunting than I had feared and far more fun
than I had hoped.
From the students' point of view, their syllabus was always accessible
and up to date and the many links enabled them to appreciate the
Hispanic world beyond the text book, classroom and language lab.
a)I had toyed with the idea of putting a syllabus on the Web before
but considered it too daunting a project. Encouraged yet again
by other colleagues who demonstrated their Web pages at workshops
I decided to take the plunge. Then of course as soon as I received
the go ahead, I started to panic!
I had several reasons for wanting to establish a Web page.
b) I wrote the syllabus as always using Word. Shaoping Moss and
Jenni Lund took care (thank goodness!) of actually putting the
text onto the Web.
Having decided which cultural /social points to focus on I spent
a long time searching for suitable, interesting sites. Student
Luis Rosero was also helpful here, managing to find several that
I'd given up on. I was very pleased when the Web site was ready
just a few days into the semester.
Students had to write 3 internet assignments linked to geographical
areas - Spain, Mexico, Central America. They had to print out
the information they found and write a paragraph in Spanish explaining
why they chose the site and what they learned. They were allowed
to work with sites written in Spanish or English. They were graded
on both the interest value of the site and the quality of their
written work.
c) Establishing the Web site was much more fun than I thought
it would be, visiting it for the first time was very exciting.
Shaoping, Jenni and Luis were wonderful. Their suggestions and
experience were very valuable.
A few hiccups with accents etc were easily solved. Some Web sites
that existed one week, disappeared the next but having found several
excellent "starter" sites, it was easy to find replacements.
I included a whole range of sites - formal eg. museums, art galleries;
informal eg. student, personal addresses. They range from Madrid's
Prado Museum to a student's personal page on Picasso's Guernica.
From the Mexican tourist board to McDonald's in South America.
There are plenty of newspapers, radio stations, weather Reports
etc. The wholesale devastation of parts of Central America by
hurricane Mitch was there, at their fingertips and many students
chose to write about this event. Sad but educational.
For their assignments students went far beyond the starter sites
and found many interesting addresses. I had worried that they
would always choose sites written in English but this was not
the case. Anything to do with sports or food was popular but so
was travel, dance, music. Since students were able to tailor the
assignments to their own interests, the variety of topics made
my job more interesting too.
A few students from another course were jealous that they didn't
have their own Web site so Jenni Lund took the syllabus and wrote
it up. Luis and I found some additional sites that tied into it
and, flushed with success, the Spanish 150 Web site was born too!
d) Both Web addresses are there on the Hispanic & Italian Studies
Dept. Web page for all to see and enjoy. Check them out! (I would
have copied the addresses here for you but as I write this message
the Wheaton server is down, or so Netscape informs me!)
Last updated
on 1/26/99; 2:21:31 PM
Send questions about this page to: Bernadette
Houldsworth
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