A WebQuest about WebQuests

by Patty Simis, 
adapted from materials by Bernie Dodge

Introduction

A WebQuest is... an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet...

Please view the linked slide show about WebQuests. Web Quests began at San Diego State University under the tutelage of Tom March and Bernie Dodge. Tom, a former graduate student of Bernie's, has gone on to create Oz.com.  He has an excellent overview of teaching strands using the web.  Bernie's professional focus is on the design, implementation and evaluation of computer-based learning environments. WebQuests are one component of that environment about which he frets:  

"In some cases, teachers created lessons that went beyond our early ideas; in others, it seems that they picked up on only part of what we were trying to communicate." 

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 the example WebQuests listed below are the best ones? Why?
  2. Which two are the worst? Why?
  3. What do best and worst mean to you?
  4. What do you need to be able to have your students engage in this kind of activity?

Resources:  Here are the sites you'll be analyzing:

The Process

  1. First, each participant will need 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 four roles: Efficiency Expert, Affiliator, Altitudinist, Technophile

  2. Individually, you'll examine each of the sites on the list of resources 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 10 minutes on any one site.
  3. When everyone in the group has seen four or more of 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.
  4. 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.
  5. One person in each group should open up Microsoft Word or Inspiration to record the group's thoughts.
  6. When debriefing time is called, use the Word or Inspiration file to speak from as you report your results to the whole class. Do you think the other groups will agree with your conclusions?
  7. After the class debriefing, one site will be selected as being one of the 'best' and worthy of continued review:

Conclusion

Further Information: