I have just visited Tim’s blog and on his blog he has a post on digital storytelling. This made me think that digital storytelling would be a great task to use in a webquest activity because it shows that students have engaged in the content area and thus has created something as a result. As Gaskill, McNulty & Brooks (2006) comment, a feature of a webquest is when “learners analyse a body of knowledge, transform it in some way and demonstrate in-depth understanding of the material by creating a final product that others can react or respond to” (p.133). Therefore, digital storytelling allows for students to do this. However, it would have to feature in a longer term webquest, because making a digital story that demonstrates in-depth understanding will take a longer period of time than just one lesson.
Ref. Gaskill, M., McNulty, A. & Brooks, D.W. (2006). Learning from WebQuests. Journal of Science Education and Technology. 15 (2), pp.133-136).
I have just found a very useful webpage which focuses on staff development in regard to webquests. It contains different modules which deal with the various aspects of webquest design and webquests themselves. Click here to see this website!
The video below contains Bernie Dodge, the original creator of the notion of webquests, explaining in what ways blogs and wikis can be used in a webquest as well as briefly the features of each.
I have just found another excellent website that is in the form of a webquest building template. This would be really helpful for teachers when creating their own webquest because it goes through each step of the webquest building process in a very simple and teacher friendly manner. Click here to navigate to this webpage!
Below is a sample of the what the website looks like.
I have found a really helpful website that goes through all the different types of tasks that a webquest can be. For example, retelling task, compilation task etc. This is really useful if you want to create your own webquest or even if you just want to know more about them. Click here to check it out!
I have also done a more in-depth reflection on the website, which also basically outlines the content of the article.
The article has 12 useful links to websites about webquests. Mackay also briefly describes each of the websites. Making his article highly helpful to anyone looking for information on webquests, but not knowing where to start.
I have just come across a very useful webpage to use when learning about webquests and even creating them or finding existing webquests. It is called webquest.org as the title of my article suggests. This webpage will definately be something that I will keep coming back to throughout my teaching career with using webquests.
I have just watched a short little video from youtube.com of a teacher using webquests. This is a short little video briefy is much like a succes story and says a few reasons as to why to use webquests. Not as insightful as a full research article, but still worth a look.
The following statements from Lacina (2007) basically define what a webquest is:
“webquests are inquiry-based technology activities”
“most, if not all, of the information used by learners is drwan from the web”
“Their design is based on the constructivist philosophy”
“cooperative learning and scaffolding of instruction are two of its essential components”
“resource links typically are included within the webquest”
“The teacher serves as facilitator, or guide”
The article also suggests some benefits for using webquests (Lacina, 2007):
“emphasise higher level Bloom’s Taxonomy tasks, such as focusing on using information at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation”
“Webquests allow students to work cooperatively to learn and exchange new information, while using technology – which provides the muliple forms of information needed to understand a new topic”
Ref. Lacina, J. (2007). Technology in the classroom: Inquiry- based learning and technology: Designing and exploring Webquests. Childhood Education, 83 (4), p.251.
The following reflection in the form of a podcast is a result of reading Wood, J. (2005). Integrating Computers into the primary school curriculum. Education Horizons. 8 (5), pp.10-11.
The article focuses on the use of webquests in the classroom.
