Web Quests
Although WebQuests have been around for quite a while, some teachers have never really gotten into them, some have forgotten about them and some were never exposed to them. With summer coming up, it might be a good time to take a look at them once more. I found this page about webquests that has a couple of things going for it.
- It is a actually designed as a professional development experience. The idea behind the webquest is to look at a couple of other webquests with a group.
- It contains active links to 4 different webquests.
- It is middle school centered.
A couple of points that need to be considered. Webquests can be a wonderful teaching opportunity. However, just like any other strategy, they can also be abused or pointless. Too many WebQuests have become simply a “reporting of information”. That is, instead of addressing the higher level thinking skills that WebQuests were designed to address, they’ve become another “information recitation” project. Too many of the WebQuests that I’ve seen lately simply involve reading and summarizing (necessary skills of course). WebQuests are an opportunity to go far beyond that. By definition, WebQuests should involve students to analyze, synthesize, exercise judgment, exercise creativity, and problem-solving skills in a task that authentic version of situations that they may be facing now or will face in the future. This is the power of a WebQuest. Like many other strategies, this is one that should be in your toolbox. This is also a terrific strategy to address the needs of differentiation. Ah, but that is another post.