Composing a WebQuest WebQuest
Developed by (Jason Kennedy, [email protected], http://www.geocities.com/kennedyjaslcms/CreatingaWebQuest)
The invention of the Internet has changed nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Everyday many of us communicate to family and friends via email and instant messaging. Some people choose to go online to buy items ranging from automobiles to weekly groceries. Many are also taking advantage of the educational opportunities available on the World Wide Web. Once such educational tool that is exploding onto the classroom scene is the use of WebQuests.
You are a
group of teachers at a local middle school.
Since you are teachers earning a teacher’s wage, you feel the need to
supplement your income by forming an Educational Internet business. The first project venture has been
decided; You will design and create a
WebQuest for Georgia middle schools to use to actively engage their students in
learning.Read to learn about each of your roles in the group.
STEP ONE: The first thing you as a group need to do is
to find out what makes a good WebQuest.
Go to the following site and complete the exercise. For sake of argument, I have pre-assigned
the following roles: the Architect will be the Technophile, the Taskmaster will
be the Affiliator, the Researcher
will be the Efficiency Expert, the Evaluator
will be the Altitudinist.
STEP
TWO: Your group must decided on a topic
to construct your WebQuest around. This
will be the tough part. If you have mutual interests, I suggest that you choose
one that you all like. If you are
having trouble deciding, the only thing you can do is to put the topics into a
hat and draw. However, before
finalizing your topic, try looking at some other WebQuests out there in order
to get a good idea of what good topics are.
STEP
THREE: Now that you have decided on a
topic, you have to make sure that you have identified the objectives that you
want your students to reach. To do
this, you will have to determine the grade level your WebQuest will address (6,
7 or 8). You will also have to list the
QCCs (Quality Core Curriculum) that your project will fulfill. Your WebQuest’s tasks, process and research
will need to address multiple subject areas (Language Arts, Social Studies,
Science, Art, Math, etc).
The
Georgia Department of Labor lists the QCCs by grade level and subject area at
the following site:
STEP
FOUR: It is now time to split up the
group. Use the following links to learn
more about your role in the group and your responsibilities.
The
following are a list of websites that will help you during your WebQuest
project:
Sites about WebQuests:
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/materials.htm (This one has it all!) CHECK THIS OUT!
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech011.shtml
Accept the Quest! Trackstar provides this organized
collection of online resources about WebQuests.
Filamentality This site guides visitors through the
process of creating interactive, Web-based activities, including WebQuests.
WebQuests
in Our Future: The Teacher's Role in Cyberspace Kathy Schrock provides information about
WebQuests and links to additional resources.
LSU Webquests These 20 WebQuests were created by
students at the College of Education at Louisiana State University for students
from elementary through high school.
Webquests The Educational Media and Technology
consortium for San Bernadino County provides a number of excellent WebQuests
for all grade levels.
Search Engine Sites:
Savvy Search HotBot WebCrawler!
Ask Jeeves Direct Hit AltaVista
Education Sites:
Georgia Learning
Connection Links to everything involving education and Georgia.
Education World Links and archives of endless educational
information.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Chart of the thinking skills in order from
lower level to higher level and what you need to be aiming toward.
Evaluation
Please
click on WebQuest Rubric to review the criteria on
which your group grade and individual grade will be based.
Congratulations! You have
successfully designed and constructed a WebQuest that is suitable for use in a
Georgia middle school. Your new company
should be making millions soon.
In this process, you learned about
the advances in educational technology, the lengths to which teachers must go in
order to design learning opportunities and the requirements each project must
meet according to state guidelines. Most importantly, you learned about what it
takes to work in a group with a common goal.
Think about the following questions:
Was
the task I performed adequate enough to meet the needs of the group?
What
strengths/weaknesses did I bring to the group?
Would
I have been better at another job role?
If
I had to do this over again, what would I do differently?
If you think of any topics for future WebQuests, try designing one of your own. Who knows, you may really become good enough at it to make REAL money.