WebQuests

A WebQuest is a way to engage students in critical thinking about a particular topic. Today, I reviewed five WebQuests. As I reviewed them, I made notes of what I thought were the positives and negatives of each. In the end, I realized that in my opinion a good webquest is one that: engages students, creates believable roles for the students to play, presents information (tasks, support information, projects, evaluations, etc.) clearly, and requires students to work collaboratively.

After reviewing the five WebQuests mentioned on this page, I think my favorite was the Ancient Egypt WebQuest. I liked this one, because it: created believable roles for the students to assume, clearly explained the tasks and evaluations, included a variety of activities and information sources, and was easy to navigate. I think this WebQuest could be adapted and used by many teachers as is, without a lot of updates or changes. As a teacher (not even a teacher of who teaches about ancient Egypt), I was engaged.

My least favorite WebQuest was the one titled the North Carolina Zoo Breakout. I think the goals and intentions of this WebQuest are good, but the presentation and organization of these goals needs improvement. There was a lot of information crowded onto the page, it included a lot of directions, it was reading intensive, and many presentation forms were given. To me, I interpreted this as a lack of focus. There were too many things going on at once, and the overall objective was up in the air because students will get to choose. In addition, I think it would be hard to grade because each type of activity would need a different rubric and how would one determine if each project is or should be of equal value. I think choice is good, but in this case it might create a grading & management nightmare for the teacher.