Search for the word "WebQuest" in any search engine, and you soon discover thousands of online lessons created by teachers around the world. What is a WebQuest? A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented online tool for learning, says workshop expert Bernie Dodge. This means it is a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web. Beyond that, WebQuests:
- can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-long unit;
- usually (though not always) involve group work, with division of labor among students who take on specific roles or perspectives;
- are built around resources that are preselected by the teacher. Students spend their time USING information, not LOOKING for it.
- WebQuests are activities, using Internet resources, which encourage students to use higher order thinking skills to solve a real messy problem. WebQuests are a sub-set of Problem-Based Learning (PBL).
- Teachers around the world are making WebQuests for their own classes as well as to share.
- Students of all ages and grades can use WebQuests.
- Most, if not all, of the information used in WebQuests is drawn from the Internet.
- Students are provided with online resources and are asked to use this information constructively to solve the presented problem rather than just cutting and pasting material into an assignment or project.
- By eliminating the need to search or hunt for information the student is given more time to analyse, criticise and assess the information they find.
- WebQuests are inquiry-oriented activities designed to make the most of the student's time.
- Most schools cannot afford the time or resources required to allow students to search the Internet without a clear purpose in mind, and there is doubtful educational benefit in doing so. WebQuests allow students to use the Internet without the arduous task of filtering through the mountains of information contained within it. Teachers have done this work already!
- Great WebQuests direct students to not only search for information but todebate, discuss or defend a particular stance with classmates.
WebQuests are designed:
- From the perspective of student/learner
- As coherent and relevant units - either as short term lessons (a few days/lessons) to long term projects
- With a whole to part organisation
- With the teacher as facilitator
- With learning through the active construction of meaning
- For flexible environments, and
- To support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation
Types of WebQuests:
Short term: Designed to be completed over one to three lessons. Its aim is for the learner to have been introduced to a significant amount of new information and to have come to some understanding of it. Long Term WebQuests
Long term WebQuest: It will usually take between one week and a month of school time, though they may be extended over longer periods if desired. Its aim is for the learner to have been introduced to new information and to have analysed it thoroughly. From this analysis, learners extend the subject in some way and then demonstrate their understanding through a response.
