WEBQUEST EXPLORATIONS
LEARNING TO EVALUATE WEBQUESTS |
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Introduction
You are a vital member of the EdTech Launch grant program at Hawkins Middle School and have been given the task of finding effective ways to utilize technology in the classroom. Your ultimate goal is to engage students in learning the standards of your curriculum area. The administration has arranged resources and training time to help you become leaders in helping middle school students use technology. Should your school achieve its goal, it will be a model for others to use in beginning the process in their own school. Since the University of Memphis will be visiting your school in the near future to determine the effectiveness of your resources and efforts on student achievement at Hawkins Middle, you have decided, as a group, that it is in your collective best interest to take this charge seriously and to come up with something that will "WOW" the administration, the University of Memphis, your Technology Coach, and your mentor school, Mt. Juliet High. You are on a mission to positively impact student learning in ways you have never before done.You seek the advice of your mentor school and they insist that WebQuests would be the way to go. To tell the truth, you and the rest of your colleagues have no idea what a WebQuest is. But, since you are convinced this "webquest" thing has some value, it seems to be a good place to start. You are ready to assume your task.
The Task
First the your group needs to find out what WebQuests are. In order to be able to develop WebQuests that meet your grade level needs, you have to develop a thorough understanding of the different possibilities open to you as you create web-based lessons. One way for you to have an understanding of the "good, bad, and the ugly" of WebQuests is to critically analyze a number of WebQuest examples and discuss them from multiple perspectives. That is your task for this lesson.By the end of the lesson, you and your group:
- Will have an understanding of what WebQuests are.
- Will analyze a rubric to evaluate WebQuests.
- Will have evaluated four WebQuests from four different perspectives and will have determined:
- Which two example WebQuests are the best ones? Why? How did you arrive at that conclusion?
- Which two example WebQuests are the worst? Why? On what grounds did you base your conclusion?
- What do best and worst mean to you? What criteria did you use to make your decision?
- Will be able to put the WebQuest activity into a theoretical paradigm. (OK, in English, you'll be able to say how WebQuests might fit into your teaching style and students' learning activities).
The final product
will be your worksheet, a committee report, evaluation rubrics, and at least a start on
designing your own WebQuest for your content area (Remember, Rome was not built
in a day and neither can the complete study of WebQuests be conquered in a
single day!)
Your completion of this WebQuest will help you in meet International Society for Technology in Education Standards for your teaching area. It will also give your students the chance to meet student ISTE standards for their grade levels.
Resources
Phase I -- Background: Something for Everyone
WebQuests provide a way for teachers to design learning experiences for their students using the power of the web. Bernie Dodge and Tom March created the WebQuest format in 1995. To help you understand WebQuests better, read the article in Education World. As you read, develop some key terms that can describe wequests and their power in learning. Mr. Dodge and Mr. March's early thoughts were captured in the paper Some Thoughts About WebQuests, which was later published in the journal The Distance Educator. This article goes more indepth into webquests and their purpose.This exercise is a webquest which is modeled from how Bernie Dodge has been using this tool to help teachers. He deserves the bulk of the credit (or blame, depending upon your perspective) for the task you are embarking upon. WebQuests have been adopted and adapted by teachers all over the country. Kathy Schrock in Massachusetts teaches the process to her graduate students and has developed a slide show to explain the concept. Miguel Guhlin and Jim Baldoni in Texas teach workshops throughout the country on the WebQuest concept.
In a group discussion, we will discuss our thoughts and establish answers to the question, "In what way can webquests help me as a teacher?"
Next, we will analyze webquests that can help us see different perspectives in their design. It will also help you begin to develop ideas about planning your own webquest.
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The Process
Phase II -- Dividing into groups
- Each participant will have a hard copy of the worksheet. To evaluate the following webquests from different perspectives, you will study the following roles.
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 are 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, unambiguous activity that teaches a small
thing well, then you like it. If it's a long-term activity, it had
better deliver a good 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 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.
Individually, you'll examine each of the sites in Phase III below and use the worksheet to jot down some notes.
Phase III -- Examining the WebQuests
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
- Gallery of Art-i-Facts
- The Guilded Age
- Extra, Extra, Read All About It
Phase IV -- Now partner with one or two other individuals and using the Rubric to Evaluate a WebQuest, rate each webquest with a score to determine its effectiveness for student learning.
Phase V -- Debating, Discussing, and Reaching Consensus
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It is your job now to join as a group and share your ideas to
give your nominations for the best and worst WebQuest. Pool your
perspectives and see if you can agree. Appoint someone in the group to
open a Word or Inspiration document to record the thoughts of the members.
Be sure to give justification for the best and worst in terms of what
characteristics made it so.
- Using the MJHS Staff Development website resources, find two webquests in your content area and identify qualities from the above rubric that make it attractive for your classroom use. Be ready to share these with the group. Check out the Round One Best Practices and Round Two Best Practices from the MJHS site for additional WebQuests that have served teachers and students in our grant program.
Phase VI
Search for webquests in your content area using one of the popular search engines, and begin to develop a webquest from a template. Be aware of the tips for designing effective webquests as you begin.
Evaluation
Your evaluation will be determined by the quality of the WebQuest you design and implement for your own classroom. Use the WebQuest Rubric to determine your effectiveness in understanding WebQuests and their implementation.
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Conclusion
You should now have a clear idea of what WebQuests are and how valuable they can be to assist in teaching and learning. The concept of WebQuests has an infinite number of applications to classrooms. As you have explored WebQuests, hopefully you have begun to consider how you can utilize them in your own teaching. By using a rubric to assess WebQuests, you have begun to see value in those you find on the Internet. In addition, you are beginning to think about how to construct a webquest for your class and involve your students in engaged learning with a cooperative twist. As Bernie Dodge says "The best WebQuest is yet to be written. It might be yours!"
This page was adapted from "A WebQuest About WebQuests" by Bernie Dodge originally created by Nancy L. Scott and modified by Diane Bennett to assist in the mentoring program for the EdTech Launch grants for Tennessee Department of Education (permission granted by Nancy L. Scott for modification).