Sally Phillips on Technology Integration in the Classroom
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Friday June 16, 2006
Blog #4 The WebQuest: A Great Way to Manage Data and Focus Student Inquiry
I first became aware of WebQuests about 6 years ago?went to a workshop at my school?thought it was a great idea, but have never taken the time to create one. But after reading some articles on helping students navigate the web in a meaningful way, I have had my attention draw to this tool once again.
A WebQuest is a student-centered investigation activity that is built around a collection of specific web sites, on a specific subject. The subject can be very specific, or quite broad. A teacher skillfully brings this collection together. Several essential questions may be posed. Students are to develop answers / positions on the topic by using the pre-selected sites. Students do not have to spend their time looking for the site; that has been done for them.
In an article by Dr. Bernie Dodge, ?Focus ? 5 Rules for Writing a Great WebQuest? he provides the startling fact that there are over 550 billion Web pages!!! Only 1 million of them show up on any of the standard search engines. When students are doing their research it is entirely possible that they are missing may great sites and great information. In ?Online Digital Archives,? Mark Hofer discusses the vast numbers of Web sites that are grouped together by topic in digital archives. This will help the teacher get into the ?deep Web,?what is beyond the sites that turn up in Google or Alta Vista, etc. These archives are often the project of a public or private organization interested in a particular topic. When creating a WebQuest, a teacher could use these digital archives as a resource on the specific topic. By not having to spend their time searching, students can focus on the assignment.
While it may seem that the ideal situation be that every child be on a computer, there is much to be learned from students working in groups, bringing information together. A WebQuest is a good tool to use with cooperative learning. Students develop small group social skills, as well as learn to be accountable to a group. A successful WebQuest depends on a well-organized site, and questions / tasks that challenge the students.
I teach Clothing and Housing & Interior Design. Both of these are hugely visual subjects. In my opinion, no textbook can adequately bring this material to students. We really need to be on a field trip once a week! I can already see that I could do a WebQuest of changing fashions of clothes and of the home. For me, Housing & Interior Design best lends itself to the WebQuest. I think it would be an interesting challenge to propose that a family was going to have to move to another part of the country. From the WebQuest, they could look at various locales, study taxes, available housing, schools, employment outlooks, life-style, recreation, and entertainment. Once they decide where to move, they can begin to look for places to live?Buy? Rent? Build? Available services? Civic groups of local interest? The task is not to find a right answer, but to use the information to make some decisions. This would be a very real-life inquiry. Families are making these decisions everyday?and chances are, that these students will have to do this sometime in their lives.
Posted at 12:45PM Jun 16, 2006 by PHILLIPS, SALLY in General | Comments[0]
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