VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 08:59:38 03/27/11 Sun
Author: Ludmila
Subject: Task 9- What is a WebQuest?

Hey everybody, here is what I think of this section of our group work.

TASK 9-PART II

What is a WebQuest?
Which are its main theoretical foundations?

A webquest is an internet activity that allows someone to create useful knowledge in order to achieve and solve a certain task. A webquest organizer provides helpful internet sources which will promote and guide learners through the process of discovery.
Bernie Dodge at San Diego University, in the year of 1995, was the one who developed and created a model of Webquest, and he also had the help of Tom March. The first author affirmed that there are two types of Webquests: the short term knowledge acquisition, which can be completed in a short period of time; and the long term webquest, that can take up to four weeks to be completed and it requires students to transform and demonstrate what they have learned.
Just like a well planed lesson, a webquest when well elaborated can make learning a lot more interesting for students. Adopting webquests in the classroom can be a solution to help students to become self sufficient learners, by helping them to find answers about any topic for themselves. When creating a good webquest teachers are actually having a more dynamic approach towards teaching.
Through webquest learners are able to travel around the world, see, experiment and visualize things and facts from a distant time in the past. This tool is a manner of keeping students motivated and involved in the learning process. One of the best aspects of using webquests, is to help students to use reasoning skills involved in the learning process, instead of them being concern in memorizing data and dates.
According to Christie (2007) when creating a webquest teachers are actually giving learners the opportunity to be part as an activate member of the construction of knowledge. The author also mentioned some good points of using webquests in the classroom, and these are: through a webquest students are able to analyze, evaluate and interpretate, think critically and decide the relevance of the information being offered. Webquests are also a way to instigate cooperative qualities in students, because it involves cooperative learning. That way, it is an excellent source to develop social skills and tolerance of differences. When engaging in group work students are able to understand others’ point of view and express their views as well.
Webquests are easy to use it and to create, and teachers role is to guide learners through a specific topic (related to the learning process), help them to complete a task, provide rubrics for grading students, and give learners the chance to share what they have acquired with others.
But in order to use webquests accurately and to students’ benefit from it, teachers should know what they are doing and should take some careful steps when creating one. A lot of bad webquests are created because those steps were not taken into consideration. The author Ruffini (2004) showed in details those steps and what teachers should know and understand to create a successful webquest. First of all, teacher should know some basic aspects of their computer and the use of the internet. They should also understand the concept of a URL, and how it is composed.
Ruffini (2004) affirmed that before considering creating a webquest, teachers should have the following questions in mind:
• What do I want my students to learn as a result of this lesson?
• Why is this information important?
• Where does the information fit into the specific context of this unit?
• How does this information fit into the broader curriculum? How can this information help students make connections across subject areas? For an example, take a look at Discover the Renaissance - a webquest to broaden students' understanding of this historical period.
When designing a god webquest, teachers should also follow these steps:
• Define the elements and main topic of this webquest
• Good webquests are easy to use, they are very visually (with nice pictures) and they have appropriate materials for the right age level.
• A good webquest should have the following sections: introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, reflection, extension and notes to the teacher
• Materials and web pages related to the main topic to be included as research materials for the students
Teachers have to be really careful with the list web pages they offer to their students, for this reason they should always analyze and verify each website by:
-checking the URL, in order to know about the quality of the website and what its contain
-check member sites and questionable sources to see who had created and if it is a reliable source
-check the site’s intent to verify if the topic contended in that website, it is according to the teacher’s intentions
-check the reading level of that website, to see if it is compatible to students’ reading level
After checking and verifying all steps for students’ safety, teachers who are creative are sure to create a nice webquest, that will probably educate and entertain students at the same time.

REFERENCE
http://alicechristie.org/edtech/wq/about.html CHRISTIE, A. Dr. Alice Christie What is a webquest? March, 2011.
http://www.mapacourse.com/webquesthtml/ RUFFINI, M. Webquest e-map. March, 2011.
http://webquest.org/

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.