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WebQuests: Guches, Lynn

Page history last edited by Marissa Guches 15 years ago

WebQuests

By: Marissa Guches & Alecia Lynn

What is a WebQuest?

A WebQuest as Bernie Dodge (the creator) describes it "is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web." The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium.

WebQuest Steps

Generally, WebQuests are set up with an Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, Conclusion, Credits, and Teacher's Page. The introduction orients the student with the lesson almost as a "Bell Ringer" to the topic and gets the students intrested. The task is a summary of what they need to accomplish. The Process is the steps the students will take to complete the assignment. They can work alone or in a group of four where they will be assigned different roles. A group or WebQuest Team consist of the four members whose characteristics are described in the Roles section below. Each team member assumes a role representing a particular bias in the curriculum development and evaluation process.

The Constructor

Supports situations in which students create products illustrating their understanding.

Encourages educational activities in which students make their own meaning.

Focuses on process and discovery learning; wants students to be active learners.

The Integrator

Supports lessons which integrate content and skills from several different content areas.

Encourages educational activities in which students make connections between related content areas such as math/science and social science/language arts.

Focuses on realistic integration of materials; does not want activities where content areas are included for the sake of integration.

The Motivator

Supports lessons which are intrinsically interesting and engaging to students.

Expects Web sites to load relatively quickly, have reliable links, and contain navigational aides where appropriate.

Endorses Web materials that are visually attractive, easily read, and easily understood by students.

The Thinker

Supports lessons that engage students in critical thinking and problem solving situations.

Endorses activities that challenge students to develop and use higher order thinking skills in content areas from across the curriculum.

Believes students benefit from exploring problem situations that lack single "right answers" or traditional solutions.

To evaluate the activity, the WebQuest-Quest facilitator may assess the participants on any or all of the following criteria:

Did participants successfully complete the activity?

Did participants work cooperatively within their teams?

Did participants make decisions based on the assumed role?

Do the comments recorded on feedback forms delineate clear criteria and rationales for decisions?

Do the criteria and rationales for decisions recorded on feedback forms reflect the role each participant assumed?

Creating WebQuests

Technologically, creating a WebQuest can be very simple. As long as you can create a document with hyperlinks, you can create a WebQuest. That means that a WebQuest can be created in Word, Powerpoint, and even Excel! If you're going to call it a WebQuest, though, be sure that it has all the critical attributes.

A real WebQuest....

is wrapped around an interesting task that is ideally a scaled down version of things that adults do as citizens or workers.
requires higher level thinking, not simply summarizing. This includes synthesis, analysis, problem-solving, creativity and judgment.
makes good use of the web. A WebQuest that isn't based on real resources from the web is probably just a traditional lesson in disguise. (Of course, books and other media can be used within a WebQuest, but if the web isn't at the heart of the lesson, it's not a WebQuest.)
isn't a research report or a step-by-step science or math procedure. Having learners simply distilling web sites and making a presentation about them isn't enough.
isn't just a series of web-based experiences. Having learners go look at this page, then go play this game, then go here and turn your name into hieroglyphs doesn't require higher level thinking skills and so, by definition, isn't a WebQuests

Creating a WebQuest can be time consuming, thankfully there are resources that allow teachers to search databases for webquests that have already been created, one example is QuestGarden.

QuestGarden

To make it easier to create great WebQuests without having to master a web editor, QuestGarden was created by Bernie Dodge. QuestGarden provides step-by-step direction and examples. Supporting documents in Inspiration, Word, PowerPoint, etc can be attached to your WebQuest. Hosting is provided, and you can also download a zipped archive of your lesson and move it to another server. Subscribers can also start with an existing WebQuest created by one of QuestGarden's 52000 members and modify it easily

What are the benefits of WebQuests?

Webquests help students by preparing them to

Work in teams.
Think critically, the issues facing citizens will become more and more complex, and societal problems will resist easy fixes or black-and-white categorization.
The amount of information available to everyone will grow at an accelerating pace; much of it will come directly from a growing number of sources without filtering or verification. Webquests will help to students to determine reliable websites
Scaffolding! It helps to sowly introduce a topic and have the students build on their knowledge

Webquests also engage the student more then a typical lesson plan would, getting them more involved in the curriculm and helping them to see the bigger picture.

For more information visit the Why WebQuests article - http://www.internet4classrooms.com/why_webquest.htm