Introduction
Since early in 1995,
teachers everywhere have learned how to use the web well by adopting the WebQuest format
to create inquiry-oriented lessons. But what exactly is a WebQuest?
What does it feel like to do one? How do you know a good one when you see it?
In the space of 90 minutes, you're going to grapple with these questions and
more. The Task
To develop great
WebQuests, you need to develop a thorough understanding of the different
possibilities open to you as you create web-based lessons. One way for you to
get there is to critically analyze a number of webquest examples and discuss
them from multiple perspectives. That's your task in this exercise. By the end of this
lesson, you and your group will answer these questions: 1. Which two of example WebQuests
are the best ones? Why? 2. Which two are the worst?
Why? 3. What do best and worst
mean to you? The Process
1. First, each participant will have
a hard copy of the worksheet. To answer
the questions given above, you'll break into groups of four. Within the
group, each of you will take on one of the following roles:
2. Individually, you'll examine each
of the sites below and use the worksheet to jot down some notes of your
opinions of each from the perspective of your role. You'll need to examine
each site fairly quickly. Don't spend more than 7 minutes on any one site. Your
instructor will keep time using this clock:
3. Select five (5) WebQuests to
analyze from the WebQuest Search . 4. When everyone in the group has seen
all the sites, it's time to get together to answer the questions. One way to
proceed would be to go around and poll each team member for the best two and
worst two from their perspective. Pay attention to each of the other
perspectives, even if at first you think you might disagree with them. 5. There will probably not be
unanimous agreement, so the next step is to talk together to hammer out a
compromise consensus about your team's nominations for best and worst. Pool
your perspectives and see if you can agree on what's best for the learner. 6. One person in each group should
record the group's thoughts. 7. When debriefing time is called,
report your results to the whole class. Do you think the other groups will
agree with your conclusions? Conclusion
Ideally, this exercise
will provide you with a larger pool of ideas to work with as you develop your
WebQuest-making skills. The best WebQuest is yet to be written. It might be
yours! Last updated on February 28, 2003 |
The Efficiency Expert: You value time a great
deal. You believe that too much time is wasted in today's classrooms on
unfocused activity and learners not knowing what they should be doing at a
given moment. To you, a good WebQuest is one that delivers the most
learning bang for the buck. If it's a short, unambitious activity that
teaches a small thing well, then you like it. If it's a longterm activity,
it had better deliver a deep understanding of the topic it covers, in your
view.
The Affiliator: To you, the best learning
activities are those in which students learn to work together. WebQuests
that force collaboration and create a need for discussion and consensus are
the best in your view. If a WebQuest could be done by a student working
alone, it leaves you cold.
The Altitudinist: Higher level thinking is
everything to you. There's too much emphasis on factual recall in schools
today. The only justification for bringing technology into schools is if it
opens up the possibility that students will have to analyze information,
synthesize multiple perspectives, and take a stance on the merits of
something. You also value sites that allow for some creative expression on
the part of the learner.
The Technophile: You love this internet thang.
To you, the best WebQuest is one that makes the best use of the technology
of the Web. If a WebQuest has attractive colors, animated gifs, and lots of
links to interesting sites, you love it. If it makes minimal use of the
Web, you'd rather use a worksheet.