I helped out during a WebQuest training last week. I am totally psyched about WebQuests again. I remember what I used to love about them. Not only are they structured just enough to keep the kids on task, but they are open-ended enough to give the kids some flexibility and choice. Kids are more motivated to learn when given some choice. WebQuests allow a teacher to build in differentiation and higher-order thinking into the tasks and products as well.
My mind rapidly started spinning about how to incorporate Web2.0 technologies into WebQuests. I think that they could be used to acquire the information, through social technologies, wikis, etc. They are also a great means of disseminating information at the end of the project. I'm going to keep brainstorming as I work this summer on designing a couple of WebQuests for my district website.
Specifically, I'd like to have one for my Mutant Frog unit and create some sort of Measurement one for math.
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When I started teaching 1:1, I thought that I'd be using webquests a lot more than I do. I Don't think I've used one in two years.
ReplyDeleteOne reason I think I don't use them is that my students use the computers everyday, and they really don't see time limits like they would in a computer lab. They "multi-task" (i.e. proxy sites) and explore Wikipedia. It just seems like this happens more frequently when we are doing Webquests.
I'm also pretty lazy when it comes to Webquests. Most of the time when I find one, it takes so much time to edit it to fit my classroom needs that I just get frustrated and give up.
Most of the Webquests that I have seen end up being a book report over a topic that is so boring that the teacher doesn't really want to teach it.
Reading your post, I think I'm going to give webquests another go this year - just as long as I get it written in the summer. Once August gets here, I won't have time!