3/28/08

How can we design lessons that stimulate student inquiry?

WebQuests

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Escaping the dusty textbook

What is a WebQuest? Here's a definition:

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity, where some or all of the material a student interacts with comes from the resources on the Internet. WebQuests eliminate the need for a student to search, sometimes endlessly for information on a topic, since prescreened links are provided in the WebQuest. Another benefit to using WebQuests is that they are easily created and support any curriculum topic. They are motivating and highly interactive, allowing students to use real life resources that are up to date.

WNET has an excellent online workshop about WebQuests. You might even be able to get professional credits for viewing it.

There are two ways to look at a WebQuest: the first is how you as the teacher are going to design and evaluate it, the other is what each step of a WebQuest will look like to a student. Let's look at the final product first.

Instead of writing more linear text with links to click on, WebQuests take a constructivist approach to learning. As Bernie Dodge, one of the original creators of the WebQuest once stated, "[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." Usually, the quest is divided in the following sections:

• Introduction
• Task
• Process
• Evaluation/Rubric
  
• Conclusion
• Teacher Page

Students typically complete WebQuests in cooperative groups. Each student in each group then has a "role," or specific area to research. WebQuests often require cooperative group work, where each person researches a specific area, or has a specific task. Let's jump back into one, and see how they work.

• Bernie Dodge's WebQuest About WebQuests

Each of you will take on a role, and evaluate a handful of WebQuests. Once everyone on the group has evaluated each WebQuest, based upon their persona, your group will collectively evaluate each WebQuest.

Creating online inquiry

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Framing student exploration

So we're back at one of the main issues of this colloquium: how to create educational writings that aren't like dusty books, that are more than static lists of information. Creating a storyline line for students to move back and forth through, allows students to move along at their own pace, searching out what they are specifically interested in, while keeping the focus and objectives of the online research intact.

Of course, if you're creating a WebQuest (hint, hint) you're more likely to gather all the materials you want to include in the online lesson before you organize it into the above steps. Here are some additional resources to help you craft your WebQuest:

• Bernie Dodge's WebQuest Resources
  
• A Road Map for Designing WebQuests
• Writing WebQuests for the Classroom
• WebQuest Resources

Evaluation

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Homework #3

Let's recap what we've done, or should have done, by now:

• Each student searched for and summarized three articles about how the classroom will look different than it is today.
• Each group developed a lesson plan that includes NYS and NYC standards, an Aim, development of the lesson, and a summary.
  
• Each group used ERIC to find four education articles (and APA citations) that relate to their lesson plan.
• Each group uploaded their information to their wiki page.
  
• Each group found 3-6 Internet lesson plans similar to their own.
• Each group completed the Blog WebQuest and uploaded their answers to their wiki page.

And now for today's homework.

Deliverable #1: Each group will use the materials they have gathered so far to develop a WebQuest. To do so, please follow the below steps:

1. Organize the Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation, Conclusion, and Teacher Page from your materials.
   
2. Use an online resource to generate your WebQuest. The best one is filamentality, another one is blogs2teach . If you prefer to save your WebQuest to disk, you can use aclearn.net or seneca.

That's It!