Creating a
WebQuest
It's Easier Than You Think
Always wanted to make a WebQuest but not sure where to
start? Education World has all the answers and can make the process easy for
you.
WebQuests are probably the most talked-about and widely used
Web-based activities in today's classrooms. What are WebQuests? What accounts
for their popularity? And how can you use—and create—WebQuests in your own
classroom? Education World explores those questions and more.
"I
hear and I forget. I see and I remember.
I do and I understand."
— Confucius
"A WebQuest," according to Bernie Dodge, the
originator of the WebQuest concept, "is an inquiry-oriented activity in
which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web.
WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information
rather than on looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels
of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation."
Education World asked two educators who have created their
own WebQuests to share with us the benefits they bring to their classroom.
Why WebQuests?
WebQuests, which use the constructivist approach to
learning, are a super learning tool, said Kenton Letkeman, creator of a number
of excellent WebQuests.
"With many research projects," Letkeman told
Education World, "students feel that they are sucking up information and
regurgitating it onto paper for no other reason than to get a good grade.
WebQuests give students a task that allows them to use their imagination and
problem-solving skills. The answers are not predefined and therefore must be
discovered or created. Students must use their own creative-thinking and
problem-solving skills to find solutions to problems.
"WebQuests are also a wonderful way of capturing
students' imagination and allowing them to explore in a guided, meaningful
manner," added Letkeman, a resource-based learning consultant for the
Tisdale School Division in Saskatchewan, Canada. "Communication, group work,
problem solving, and critical and creative thinking skills are becoming far
more important in today's world than having students memorize predetermined
content."
"WebQuests allow students to explore issues and find
their own answers," he added. "Particularly with controversial issues
-- such as pollution, gambling, and nuclear waste disposal -- students must do
more than memorize information. They must process the information in meaningful
ways and reach moral and ethical decisions guided by facts."
The adaptive dimension, the ability to make adjustments in
educational programs to accommodate students' diverse learning needs, is also
an important characteristic of WebQuests, according to Letkeman. "With
WebQuests, special needs students can be given predetermined roles that are
very important and make them feel part of the group," he said.
"Advanced students can explore further and do more than is required. The
interest this type of project generates makes that a reality, rather than a
fantasy!"
The Well-planned WebQuest
Mim Faro, a gifted and talented enrichment teacher at Mt.
Penn Elementary Center in Pennsylvania, recently created her first WebQuest.
She agrees that WebQuests are an exciting and valuable teaching tool. "Of
course, some WebQuests are better than others," she noted.
"A well-planned WebQuest," Faro told Education
World, "has guidance for students, a creative end project with room for
flexibility, and links that help answer questions and positively add to the
project. A strong WebQuest is designed for students to work independently,
allowing the teacher to be a facilitator in students' learning rather than the
sole dispenser of knowledge."
Faro offered this advice for teachers who are considering
using WebQuests in the classroom. "Always thoroughly check any WebQuest
you have not created to make sure the information is relevant and the links
work."
Of course, the best WebQuests ensure relevance because they
are specifically tailored to your curriculum and your students.
"If you are going to create a WebQuest," Faro
said, "search through some existing WebQuests first. Make note of what you
like and what you don't like. And above all, dare to be creative!"
The WebQuest Formula
WebQuests, say the teachers who use them, promote high-level
thinking, develop problem-solving skills, and provide an avenue for seamlessly
integrating technology into the curriculum. And creating one is easier than you
might think! Many sites are available to walk you through the process.
One of the most thorough is Bernie Dodge's WebQuest
Page. According to Dodge, the six building blocks of a WebQuest are:
- The Introduction orients students and captures their interest.
- The Task describes the activity's end product.
- The Process explains strategies students should use to complete the
task.
- The Resources are the Web sites students will use to complete the
task.
- The Evaluation measures the results of the activity.
- The Conclusion sums up the activity and encourages students to reflect
on its process and results.
Help! Where Do I Begin?
Before designing a WebQuest, you'll want to have an outline
handy to guide you through the process. A number of excellent WebQuest
outlines, including Tom March's Prewriting Your WebQuest, will help. Templates
such as Dodge's WebQuest Templates are also
available online.
The Design Process
Once you have your outline or template in hand, here
are some main points to include:
- The Topic. You may have already decided on a topic related to
current events or to an area of the curriculum that's inadequately covered
in available texts. If you're still searching for a topic, however, Tom
March, who developed the first WebQuests with Bernie Dodge, suggests
starting "where you're at." "If you have an area that's
your specialty, something that thrills you to teach, that you know inside
and out, up and down, begin there," March says. You can also explore
March's Idea Machine, which
provides 50 prompts designed to help begin the brainstorming process.
- The Task. "The task," says Dodge, "is the single
most important part of a WebQuest." His WebQuest Taskonomy: A Taxonomy of Tasks
provides eleven different types of tasks, including journalistic, mystery,
persuasion, and judgment tasks. If you can't find it here, you can't find
it anywhere!
- The Process. In this section, you'll include the roles students will
assume and the steps they'll follow to complete the activity. March's Designing for Success provides not only a
Designer's Checklist, but also some clickable "friendly advice"
for the creatively challenged!
- The Resources. Identify the online resources available on your topic
by brainstorming a list of related words and using the list to search for
relevant sites. As you search, create a hotlist of current, accurate, and
age-appropriate sites that will engage your students' interest.
- The Evaluation. As Kenton Letkeman points out, "Traditional
evaluation techniques are not the best means for evaluating the results of
WebQuests, since all students may not learn the same content. Individual
evaluation rubrics should be developed that follow curriculum objectives
and are easy for students to understand." Dodge's Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests also
provides a number of criteria for evaluating students' WebQuest success.
Share It!
Finally, your WebQuest is finished -- and you're pretty
proud of it! Why not click Submit a WebQuest at WebQuest.org
and share it with other technology-savvy educators?
Additional
Resources
Article by Linda Starr
Education World®
Copyright © 2000 Education World
