Transcript What is a WebQuest? - Hudson Valley Community College

WebQuests
Linda R. Desnoyers
Assistant Professor
Hudson Valley Community College
WebQuest Presentation Goals
• Define the WebQuest concept and explain how it
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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.
As Educator’s we may…
• Reflect on what has been
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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
Hx and Definition of WebQuests
• Developed early 1995 by Bernie Dodge
and Tom March
• The WebQuest Page at
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html
So Why WebQuest?
• Students go beyond fact-finding.
• It focuses on using information constructively rather
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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.
What do WebQuests do for…
• Student Motivation
and Authenticity
• Developing
thinking skills
• Cooperative
learning
• Process and Access
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
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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.
Developing thinking skills
• Built into WebQuest process is the strategies of cognitive
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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.
According to Dodge…
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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
Cooperative learning
• According to Johnson and
Johnson (2000)
– Positive
interdependance:
Learners perceive that
they cannot succeed
without each other.
– Promotive
interaction:
(preferably face-toface): Students help
teach and applaud
each other as they
wrestle with authentic
work.
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
group’s effectiveness is
deliberately built into
the process.
Cooperative learning
• Students take on roles in small groups. Each
student has input. This tends to promote
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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.
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
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for learning.
WebQuests direct a more responsible use of the
internet.
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.
Critical Components of WebQuests
• Introduction
• Task
• Resources
• Process
• Guidance
• Evaluation
• Conclusion
Introduction
• “Sets the stage” –orientates the learner to what is
coming.
• http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/buildingblocks/p-index.htm
Task
It’s 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.
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http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/buildingblocks/p-index.htm
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WebQuest Taskonomy:
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/taskonomy.html
Task Examples
• A position to be formulated and defended such as an
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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
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• Anything that requires the learners to process
and transform the information
Resources
• What the students are to consider to
accomplish the tasks
• Documents, experts available via e-mail,
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searchable databases on the net, video
conferences, books and other documents
physically available in the learner’s 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
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/buildingblocks/p-index.htm
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/buildingblocks/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 they’ve learned, and
perhaps encourages them to extend the experience to
other domains.
• http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/buildingblocks/p-index.htm
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.) Don’t lose what you
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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.
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!
Feedback from the Class of 2002
• The following video was made using a structural
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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
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/webquest.html
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.html
Your Assignment
• Develop a draft of an idea that you would use as a
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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 Aren’t You a
WebQuest?”
Please feel free to contact me if you want me to look at
your WebQuest.
[email protected] or ext. 7706
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/buildingblocks/p-index.htm
Bibliography
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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
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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.htm
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Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, R.T. (2001) An Overview of Cooperative learning [Online]. Retrieved
January 15, 2003 Available: http://www.clcrc.com/pages/overviewpaper.html
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Schrock, K. (2000). Kathy schrock’s guide for educators. Retrieved November 15, 2001 from
Discovery School Web site:
http://www.school.discovery.com/schrockguide/webquest/webquest.html
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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