Our focus this week was WebQuests. Before last year I had no idea what they were and i thought that our tutor had made up some crazy activity. But with further research i came to learn about them in more depth and even had to evaulate one. This is a rubric for evaluating webquests.

A WebQuest is an inquiry-orientated activity in which some or all of the information hat the learners need are available to them. They challenge the students to engage in a higher order of thinking as they review various forms of information looking for an answer to some problem. Our first text, “Some thoughts about WebQuests” by Bernie Dodge, looks at the two levels of WebQuests, these are :

Short Term: The instructional goal is based on knowledge acquisition and intergration and is designed to be completed in 1 to 3 classes. Once completed students will have grappled with a significant amount of new information and made sense of it.

Long Term: The instructional goal is based on extending and refining kowledge and can take between 1 week to 1 month. By completing it the learner would have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to.

To achieve a positive learning goal a WebQuest should contain te following:

• An introduction

• A Task

• A set of Information sources

• The Process

• Guidance

• A Conclusion

• Group activities

• and enhanced through Motivational elements (role to play)

Our Second text was a step by step look at the different areas of a Webquest.

The reason webquests are constructed is to promote some form of higher-order thinking and the most important kind of thinking requires these types of questions…

“Once you have learned how to ask relevant and appropriate questions, you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.” Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner,Teaching as a Subversive Activity 

Another important aspect, of using a webquest or even the internet to answer some question, is to use the research cycle (McKenzie, 2000), which provides the structure and the scaffolding to direct students efforts, helping them to stay on track and work efficiently. The significant use of the scaffolding helps to organize and support the students investigation or inquiry and keeps students from straying too far off the path while seeking the truth about whatever issue, problem or question is driving the project.

The research cycle,McKenzie (2000)

Dodge(1995) believes that the thinking skills that come out of using a WebQuest are:

• Comparnig

• Classifying

• Inducing

• Deducing

• Analyzing errors

• Constructing support

• Astraction

• Analyzing perspectives.

References:

Dodge, B. (1995) Some thoughts about WebQuests. http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html

McKenzie, J. (nd), The question is the answer. http://questioning.org/module/module1.html

The WebQuest Page http://webquest.sdsu.edu/index.html