WebQuests

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WebQuests

• Linda R. Desnoyers
• Assistant Professor
• Hudson Valley Community College

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WebQuest Presentation Goals

• Define the WebQuest concept and explain how it
  fits into the realm of educational practice.
• Describe how cooperative learning, real life
  scenarios, and integrationing it into a course
  can be part of a WebQuest.
• Describe the critical components and assignments
  for a WebQuest project and how to interlace them
  into your course.
• Discuss various WebQuest topics and create a
  template for your own WebQuest.

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As Educators we may

• Reflect on what has been successful and what has
  seemed lacking
• Try to think of new ways to introduce topics.
• Wonder how to get students to engage in
  higher-level thinking and
• Want to develop authentic learning products that
  share with the real world

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Hx and Definition of WebQuests

• Developed early 1995 by Bernie Dodge and Tom
  March
• The WebQuest Page at http//webquest.sdsu.edu/webq
  uest.html

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So Why WebQuest?

• Students go beyond fact-finding.
• It focuses on using information constructively
  rather than just having the students look for it
• The problem is real world needs a genuine
  and reasonable solution
• It asks students to analyze a variety of
  resources which you choose. Students use
  resources such as URLs on the internet, authors
  of text , publications and experts who are often
  quite accessible
• Once they access the resources available it asks
  them use their creativity and critical-thinking
  to derive solutions to a problem.

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What do WebQuests do for

• Student Motivation and Authenticity
• Developing thinking skills
• Cooperative learning
• Process and Access

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Student Motivation and Authenticity

• WebQuests use strategies to increase motivation
• A central question is used that needs answering
• Directly relevant to the course or curriculum and
  combined with real life scenarios
• Students are given real resources to work with
  rather than dated textbooks.
• They can directly access experts, search
  databases, gather and exchange information within
  a group.

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Developing thinking skills

• Built into WebQuest process is the strategies of
  cognitive psychology and constructivism.
• The questions posed to student cannot be answered
  simply by collecting and spitting back
  information.
• The WebQuest forces students to transform
  information into something else.
• Helping or guiding the students to come up with
  their own answers by breaking down the task into
  meaningful chunks.
• Some call it scaffolding, prompting, redefining,
  procedural facilitation this has been shown to
  facilitate more advance thinking.

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According to Dodge

• Three types of scaffolding are in a WebQuest
• Reception allows us to put students in touch of
  resources that they might not have seen before.
• Transformation WebQuests ask students to
  transform what they read into something new.
• Production WebQuests commonly require students
  to create things they never created before.
• My Example echoprotocol2.ppt

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Cooperative learning

• According to Johnson and Johnson (2000)
• Positive interdependance Learners perceive that
  they cannot succeed without each other.
• Promotive interaction (preferably face-to-face)
  Students help teach and applaud each other as
  they wrestle with authentic work.

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Cooperative learning

• Individual and group accountability The group is
  held accountable for completing the task, and
  each individual is held accountable for his or
  her part in the process.
• Group processing Conversation about how to
  improve the groups effectiveness is deliberately
  built into the process.

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Cooperative learning

• Students take on roles in small groups. Each
  student has input. This tends to promote
  motivation.
• The learners divide and conquer to master all
  aspects of the topic and project.
• The students develop expertise in one area and
  bring to their peers a contribution for the
  complete picture.
• The students at the later stage of the project
  gain the overall understanding of the topic.

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Process and Access

• It is important to clearly integrate the WebQuest
  to previous and subsequent activities so that the
  WebQuest is not an isolated experience
  disconnected from the rest of the course or
  curriculum.
• It also helps students to begin to use the Web
  for learning.
• WebQuests direct a more responsible use of the
  internet.

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Long versus Short WebQuests

• Short Term WebQuests
• Good for introducing new information and making
  sense of it.
• Can be completed in one to three class periods.
• Long Term WebQuests
• Good for extending and refining knowledge. Good
  for bring students to a higher order of thinking.
  A learner would have analyzed a body of knowledge
  deeply, transformed it in some way, and
  demonstrated an understanding of the material by
  creating something that others can respond to,
  on-line or off.
• Can be completed between one week or a whole
  semester.

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Critical Components of WebQuests

• Introduction
• Task
• Resources
• Process
• Guidance
• Evaluation
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• Sets the stage orientates the learner to what
  is coming.
• http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/building
  blocks/p-index.htm

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Task

• Its all about what we ask the students to do
  with the information.
• It is a description of what the learner will have
  done at the end of the exercise .This is a
  product that they will produce.
• http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/building
  blocks/p-index.htm
• WebQuest Taskonomy
• http//webquest.sdsu.edu/taskonomy.html

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Task Examples

• A position to be formulated and defended such as
  an ethical dilemma
• A product that you would like your students to
  designed
• A complexity to be analyzed
• Personal insight to be articulated
• A summary to be created, persuasive message or
  journalistic account to be crafted
• A problem or mystery to be solved
• Anything that requires the learners to process
  and transform the information

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Resources

• What the students are to consider to accomplish
  the tasks
• Documents, experts available via e-mail,
  searchable databases on the net, video
  conferences, books and other documents physically
  available in the learners setting.
• If you use Blackboard or your Faculty Web Site,
  you need to provide active links.
• The URLs for the links should also be given so
  that students could use a paper copy to complete
  the WebQuest

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Process and Guidance

• The steps the learner should go through in
  accomplishing the task.
• Timelines, writing requirements, bibliography
  requirements, concept maps, cause-and-effect
  diagrams etc.
• Break it down into clearly described steps
• There should be some guidance on how to organize
  the information acquired.
• You can give them some strategies for dividing
  the task into subtasks, descriptions of roles to
  be played or perspectives to be taken by each
  learner.
• You can use this space to give learning advice or
  interpersonal process advice. (How to brainstorm)
• http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/building
  blocks/p-index.htm

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Evaluation and Conclusion

• We need to be able to measure results.
• You should use a rubrics . Students usually ask
  if there is going to be common grade or
  individual grades.
• http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/building
  blocks/p-index.htm
• A conclusion which will bring closure to the
  quest. The final word. It usually summarizes the
  experience, reminds the learners about what
  theyve learned, and perhaps encourages them to
  extend the experience to other domains.
• http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/building
  blocks/p-index.htm

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Summary - Design Steps  

• Become familiar with resources online in the
  content area you plan to use. Master a Search
  Engine!
• Organize the resources into categories (e.g.
  databases, reference material, and people.)
  Dont lose what you find!
• Describe the steps the learners should go
  through. A lot of detail and care should go into
  this. This will also allow you to see how the
  lesson flows. Create a problem or scenario and
  place it within the introduction, write the
  WebQuest with the student as the intended
  audience. Prepare and hook the reader.
•      

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Summary - Design Steps

• Describe clearly what the end result of the
  learners activities will be. Take your learners
  to task!
• Create a grading system, how will the learners
  performance be evaluated. Be specific if it will
  be a common grade vs. individual grades.
• Sum it up for them!

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Feedback from the Class of 2002

• The following video was made using a structural
  feedback technique. This feedback given by two
  students who were willing to share their ideas
  and answer question about the two WebQuest
  projects they were involved in.
• This help me to work on some problem areas within
  the WebQuest project to make the project better
  for subsequent classes.
• Click here.denoyer.avi

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WebQuest Examples

• http//www.hvcc.edu/desnolin/projects.html
• http//webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix.html
• http//geocities.com/edtechwebquest/
• http//train.rps205.com/tift2/
• http//school.discovery.com/schrockguide/museum/we
  bquest.html

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Additional Resources

• www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/oct00/march.htm
• http//www.iste.org/LL/archive.cfm
• Volume 28 (2000-2001) May No. 8
• Volume 26 (1998-1999) April No. 7
• http//www.ozline.com/learning/index.htm
• http//www.macomb.k12.mi.us/wq/wqdmain.htm
• http//www.hvcc.edu/desnolin/websiteevaluation.ht
  ml

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Your Assignment

• Develop a draft of an idea that you would use as
  a WebQuest
• Create document using all components to a
  WebQuest. Use the template provided as a guide.
  Roughly sketch in the elements. It doesn't have
  to be a completed project.
• I will hand you out a rubrics. Are You or Arent
  You a WebQuest?
• Please feel free to contact me if you want me to
  look at your WebQuest.
• desnolin_at_hvcc.edu or ext. 7706

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Bibliography

• Dodge, B (2001). The webquest page. Retrieved
  March 4, 2001, from San Diego State University
  Web site http//webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html
• Dodge, B. (1999). WebQuest taskonomy a taxonomy
  of tasks. Retrieved March 4, 2001, from San Diego
  State University Web site
• http//edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/taskonomy.html
• Dodge, B. (1997) Building blocks of a webquest.
  Retrieved January 20, 2002, from
  http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/building
  blocks/p-index.htm

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Bibliography

• March, T. (2000). WebQuests for learning Why
  webquests?, an introduction. Retrieved March
  14, 2001, from ozline.com Web site
• http//www.ozline.com/webquests/intro.html
• March, T. (2000). Working the web for education
  WebQuests 101 tips on choosing and assessing
  webquests. Retrieved January 31, 2002, from
  MultiMedia Schools Web site
• http//www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/oct00/march.ht
  m
• Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T. (2001) An Overview
  of Cooperative learning Online. Retrieved
  January 15, 2003 Available http//www.clcrc.com/p
  ages/overviewpaper.html
• Schrock, K. (2000). Kathy schrocks guide for
  educators. Retrieved November 15, 2001 from
  Discovery School Web site
• http//www.school.discovery.com/schrockguide/webq
  uest/webquest.html
• Yodder, M (1999). The student webquest - A
  productive and thought-provoking use of the
  internet. Retrieved January 15, 2003, from
  International Society for Technology in Education
  Web site
• http//www.lesley.edu/faculty/myoder/webquest.pdf