Lesson 6

Lesson 6

This week we took a look at WebQuests as an educational tool. WebQuest are inquiry based research tools, which were developed by Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University in 1995. WebQuests give the learners a problem to solve, and then guide them along the path of discovery.

WebQuests lend themselves to problems which require deeper thinking and evaluative skills rather than recalling of facts. In order to perform the task at hand or solve the problem posed by the WebQuest the learner must navigate various online and possibly offline resources. Not all of the information available may be relevant to the topic, so the learner must analyze and filter out what is not needed.

The WebQuest is broken down into seven sections: Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, Conclusion, Credits, and Teacher Page. The learner typically needs to concentrate on the first five sections only. The Introduction is used to creatively engage the learner. The Task sets learning objectives for the student to complete throughout the assignment. The Process is a step by step guide as to how the student will complete the assignment and complete the objectives laid out in the task. The Evaluation is a rubric or scoring guide which will be used by the teacher to evaluate the student’s work. The student will most likely use the rubric for self-evaluation throughout the process. The Conclusion closes out the assignment and offers additional resources for the student to continue studying the topic beyond the scope of the WebQuest.

The other two sections, Credits and Teacher Page, are to give thanks to whoever influenced or contributed to your work and to explain the use of the WebQuest to other teachers.

When developing the WebQuest the hardest part for me was the introduction. It seems to me that the whole point of the WebQuest is to increase the level of student engagement. A creative introduction is necessary in doing so. Coming up with a topic, which can be studied via WebQuest was not as difficult as creating a situation, which seemed like an interesting reason for the students to want to study the material. Another difficult part of creating the assignment was the rubric. Defining how students are evaluated forces you to question what is really important, and what do you want students to ultimately get out of the project. It was an arbitrary process, which may or may not make perfect sense to the learner. I created a rubric, but I am not sure that I can answer the question of why I did it the way that I did.

I do believe that WebQuests can be a valuable learning tool, especially for today’s students, many of whom live on the internet. They can be very engaging and effective in multiple ways. Students learn content, study skills, responsibility, and technological literacy.