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Action Mazes

I first heard of the idea for the HTML implementation of Action Mazes in a posting by Martin Holmes. An action maze is a story with decision points, at which point the story branches.

There's an example at:

• http://www.fht-esslingen.de/institute/ifs/call.html

Since April 5, 1998, this message has been posted at the bottom of this page: "I'll obviously have to find a few more examples, considering I've started this whole page devoted to the topic. If you can help me locate some online action mazes, please email."

At long last, on May 15, 2002, someone responded and sent me this email:

"My name is Piotr Jandzinski and I am a student at Foreign Language Teachers Training College in Suwalki, Poland. I'm interested in CALL and I'd like to suggest a few website links with action mazes to place on your page. Here they are:

• At Scott Windeatt: http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/scott.windeatt/maze/index.htm
• and the Quandary site by Martin Holmes and Stewart Arneil at http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/

I hope this helps."

Sure does! Thanks Piotr!!

Incidentally, there's an example of the maze concept here. This one lacks a story line, but it illustrates one way an image-rich template could be used to facilitate navigation of a virtual maze:

• http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/apt2corniche/balcony.htm

For my next project of this nature, I'd like to stitch together panoramic shots in QuickTime which can be image mapped so as you scroll around the panorama, there are numerous linked objects in the photographs that make up the composite panorama. These links would lead to more panoramas which users would navigate in order to accomplish some task. There is an explanation of the procedure here:

• http://edtech3.cet.uiuc.edu/dmills/QT/TESOL/

Or, if any of you out there beat me to it, send me your url!

A more academically oriented but related concept is one of Webquests

Phil Benz has been giving Workshops on WebQuest Design for the Foreign Language Classroom in Tapped In, most recently May and June 2002. He gets teachers to work together to design web activities on topics chosen by the participants. An online resource site is ready for those wishing to get a head start, at: http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/english/tice/webquest_workshop.htm

References: Tapped In: http://www.tappedin.org
Workshop Resource Page: http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/english/tice/webquest_workshop.htm
The WebQuest Page: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html
Ellis Island WebQuest: http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/english/ellisislandwebquest.htm
My explanation of WebQuests on "WebTeach - TICE et Pédagogie": http://www.ardecol.ac-grenoble.fr/english/tice/en-webquests.htm
For more information, contact: Philip.Benz@ac-grenoble.fr