Blog #8 Web Quests

Web Quest: A portal for learning
After reviewing the articles on web quests as well as writing one my self, I see the incredible benefit that this brings to teachers and students. It is more than just an Internet search for data to be reported. As a matter of fact it is a great way to have students work collaboratively on the web to accomplish a common goal. I was especially impressed at the historical web quests where the students were required to create a story about a historical figure using various research done on the web and out side of class.
There are actually many different web quests available. One can search San Diego State University, filamentality, or simply Google web quests to discover that there are a plethora of resources available for teachers to work off of. One just has to be careful in using these materials as some may be copyrighted and require prior permission. Through out the last few weeks of class we were delegated the task of creating a web quest on a free site entitled filamentality. There we were there was a template to create a treasure hunt and formulate our own questions for our students.
Like I discussed a few blogs ago, when issuing questions it becomes critical to apply Bloom’s taxonomy in writing the questions in order to instill a greater meaning. If one does not apply a meaning to such questions, the desired objective may not be so easily achieved by your students. Admittedly I was not too thrilled about the prospect of doing web quests as students too many times get distracted when surfing the web. I still have doubts especially when it comes to children who don’t have access to the internet or computers in general. Nevertheless, if one teaches in a school that has access to such a technology, Web Quests are a great way to use the Internet to achieve a classroom objective.