WEBQUEST

 

WEBQUEST

*Yasmin Elena Vásquez García

*Juan Fernando Londoño Gil

What is a WebQuest? 

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet. They can be long-term projects that last a month or more or short term that take two or three lessons.

The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995 with early input from SDSU/Pacific Bell Fellow Tom March, the Educational Technology, staff at San Diego Unified School District, and waves of participants each summer at the Teach the Teachers Consortium.

Since those beginning days, tens of thousands of teachers have embraced WebQuests as a way to make good use of the internet while engaging their students in the kinds of thinking that the 21st century requires. The model has spread around the world, with special enthusiasm in Brazil, Spain, China, Australia and Holland.  

 What are the advantages of this style of lesson?

☺ Internet sites are pre-selected so students don’t waste time searching.
☺ Students are lead to use higher level thinking to process information.
☺ Processing information helps avoid plagiarism.
☺ Makes efficient use of the net.
☺ Employs cooperative learning (students are in pairs or teams for most).
☺ Students will do real world research that is current and up-to-date.
☺ Scaffolding provided within the lesson can help lower learners catch up.
☺ Lessons are designed to motivate students by capturing their interest.

Introduction: 
• Introduces activity in a language that captures student interest.
• Sets the stage for the series of lessons


Task:
• Describes what the end result of the project will be.
• Outline the technology that students will be using.
• There are many different types of tasks that you can use: !

Retelling Tasks: 
 Students absorb information and show that they understand it.

- These can be introductory and quick and easy.
- Presentations can be done in HyperStudio, posters, short reports.
- Format and wording of final product must be significantly different than what it read.
- Skills of summarizing, distilling and elaborating are required and supported.
- This may be used as a background for a different type of task

The Process: 
• These are the steps the learner should go through to process the task. •
 Includes descriptions of the roles to be played or perspectives to be taken.
• This is also a good place to provide advice for the learner.
• Resources can be embedding in this section of the lesson. For example having places where students click to get the required worksheet.
• Should be short and clear.

Evaluation: 
• Use an evaluation rubric to examine the reaches of Boom’s Taxonomy.

Conclusion: 
• Summarize the experience, encourage reflection about the process, extend and generalize what was learned.
• Rounds document and provides closure.
• You can suggest questions for discussion

Source:  http://www.sd71.bc.ca/Sd71/Edulinks/workshop/webquest.pdf


Following this link you can get access to a WebQuest created for academic purposes.
we hope you enjoy it!