Betty’s Bytes

What is an authentic WebQuest? How can one evaluate a WebQuest? Because an activity is Web-based, does that make it a WebQuest? What features must be included to meet the standards of a WebQuest model? Tom March answers these questions in What WebQuests Are (Really). For more information, read March’s WebQuests and More and Bernie Dodge’s Readings and Training Materials. Two critical elements in the evaluation of WebQuests are the task, specifically the “Connection of Task to Standards” and the assessment. Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San Diego State University collaborating with staff at San Diego Unified School District and teacher participants at summer consortiums created the Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests, which is a useful tool when creating as well as evaluating WebQuests. Not all WebQuests contain all elements of the rubric, but WebQuests developed for student instruction based on the standards should contain each element.

There are many online WebQuests that run the gamut from ineffective and useless to engaging, well-organized, informative and effective. Some are unappealing to the eye and poorly organized with broken links, while others capture the attention of the readers on the home page and guide them seamlessly through the quest. According to Jerome S. Bruner, constructivist learning hinges on readiness (prior knowledge), spiraling, and  allowing for extending beyond the instruction given; a well-constructed WebQuest with an objective-driven task is an excellent example of constructivism. There are simple WebQuests such as Bernie Dodge’s A WebQuest About WebQuests where imparting knowledge without assessment is the goal and complex, engaging WebQuests such as Exhibit A where students become part of a forensic team investigating a crime. Explore the Web for existing WebQuests on a particular topic, evaluate what you find using the rubric, then use the WebQuest or create one of your own to meet the objective.

The borders are gone – classroom walls, books, education – what defines education and the educational experience has changed!  Are there no boundaries?  Desks no longer in straight rows confined to a single classroom – do we need some boundaries? Our job as educators is to find new boundaries or perhaps even to develop some of them, a place that we can “get traction in order to move forward” according to David Warlick, keynote speaker for the k12online conference. 

For the first time ever, we are preparing our students for a world very different from the one we know. Our students today are already technologically savvy; the Internet has provided a new information landscape; and the future is more unpredictable than ever before. David Warlick challenges us to change “our notions of what it means to be literate.”