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Webquest Making kit
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Call Me!! Or email is better
Tom March wrote nearly
Sandy Phillips
every word. Victorian Education Channel
Department of Education and Training, Victoria
I must acknowledge.
Phillips.sandra.l@edumail.vic.gov.au
"To the ship without a compass, any port's a destination. "
Begin with a goal. Learning should be more efficient than wandering
around aimlessly and being satisfied when learning just happens to take
place. Start with a subject of particular interest.
http://bestwebquests.com/about/default.asp
Different Formats
Hotlist: A reasonable first step is to simply compile a list of web-based resources - i.e. a
good Hotlist of sites you know are appropriate for your users. These pages might not be
standards-based or geared toward a specific learning outcome, but it will be like wheeling
a bunch of good books from the library into the classroom.
Treasure Hunt: If learners are emotionally connected to the topic, then ask the question,
"Are they learning enough background information on the subject?" If the answer is no or
if the best information on the subject is "hot off the press," then try a Treasure Hunt.
Subject Sampler: If learners have factual knowledge about a subject, then ask yourself,
"Do they come out of the unit affectively engaged?" If they don't seem to care about the
subject as you think they should, try creating a Subject Sampler.
Multimedia Scrapbook: If you want students to explore a variety of sites that you've
selected and create their own reports, newsletters, presentation stacks, or posters using
"pieces" from those sites, you might try making a Multimedia Scrapbook.
WebQuest: If they learn facts, but don't pursue higher-level thinking; why not make a
WebQuest? A webquest uses the sites you select as the starting point for a complex
activity that involves multiple perspectives, possible group collaboration, and a final
project of your choosing.
CSF vrs VELs
Hotlist/ Web Hunts WebQuest – Real Ones!!!
CSF Activity I beg the pardon
VELs Activity
of “Thinking curriculum
Open Questions
Gurus!!!”
What had global impact? Why?
What criteria was used?
Groups / Individual Debate
“Surf the net” Transformative Thinking
What would feature in a song/ Rap from
Fact Finding Aust/ NZ / HK
Discussion Creative Thinking
Maybe create one
Reporting back
The song ends in 1982 what significant
events would you feature in the iMOVIE/
photostory?
Create
Personal Learning / Reflection
What events in your life have been
Low Medium High
Engaging
No attempt made to appeal Honestly attempts to Has that something that
Opening / to learners. appeal to student interests. compels attention.
Writing
There is at least an implicit Clear Question and Task.
No real Question and / or a
Question and a Task that These naturally flow from
The Question fuzzy Task. Maybe what's
targets higher order the introduction and signal
/ Task asked for is lower level
thinking. All this may not a direction for sophisticated
thinking or info retrieval.
be totally clear. learning.
Clearly calls attention to
Some mention of
No attempt to access prior the need for a common
Background addressing a common body
learning or build common foundation of knowledge
for Everyone background.
of knowledge. (May not
and provides needed
happen within the activity.)
(Web?) resources.
Roles match the issues and
No Roles / use of Roles are clear and
resources. The roles
Roles / perspectives or Roles are realistic. They may be
provide multiple
Expertise artificial and may lack limited in scope, but do
perspectives from which to
inherent conflict of interest. evoke conflict.
view the topic.
Some resources reflect
Uses the Web to access at
features of the Web that
least some of the following:
Use of the This activity could probably make it particularly useful
interactivity, multiple
Web be done without the Web. such as images, audio,
perspectives, multimedia,
interactivity, current
current information, etc.
information, etc.
Higher level thinking is
No Transformative Higher level thinking is
required to construct new
Transformati thinking. (This is not a required, but the process
meaning. Scaffolding is
ve Thinking WebQuest, but may be a for students may not be
provided to support
good Knowledge Hunt). clear.
student achievement.
The learning product could A feedback loop connecting
easily be used for authentic learners to the Real world
Real World assessment although this is included in the Web page
No feedback loop included.
Feedback may not be addressed or it and an evaluation rubric is
only happens in the probably provided (early
classroom. on!).
Clear tie-in to the intro.
Makes the students'
cognitive tasks overt and
suggests how this learning
Returns to the intro ideas. could transfer to other
Minimal conclusion. No
May sum up the domains/issues. Probably
Conclusion mention of student thinking
experiences and learning calls attention to the
or symmetry to intro.
that was undertaken. assumptions / hidden
agendas inherent in the
WebQuest itself.
Sophistication keeps
increasing.
The 7 Red Flags:
Warning Signs when Sifting WebQuests by Tom March
Step & Fetch it
Is there a Right Answer?
Is this a traditional lesson plan dressed up as a Web page? If the question / task involves the retrieval of a
defined, known body of knowledge, this is not a WebQuest. WebQuests are use in ill-structured domains, places
with lots of gray and little "black and white." The idea is for students to argue an opinion, not mumble back
someone else's thinking.
A BestWebQuest: Take Me on Vacation!
Hip Hop Homework
Is the true Task Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V?
Similar to the "Step-and-and-Fetch-it" approach, Hip Hop Homework asks students to piece together information /
answers from various sources. This is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn't ask students to do anything
new (like interpret others' opinions). A WebQuest might ask students to gather information from different sources,
but then prompts learners to transform this acquired knowledge into a new understanding.
A BestWebQuest: Literary Fan Club
Anything Goes
Could it be done without instruction?
Sometimes an online activity will challenge students to do something creative or to solve a problem. This is
positive! The downfall to the "Anything Goes" approach, is that to complete the task, students don't have to draw
from any of the previous instruction. The fix to this near WebQuest is to ask students to apply a set of criteria to
their creation. Rather than write any play or poem, or problem-solve any solution, invoke criteria that require
students to integrate the new learning into their product.
A BestWebQuest: Influencing Your Photographic Eye
Tag Team PowerPoint
Do the roles stay separate?
This is a common mistake that almost everyone has fallen into at some point. Students work together as teams
and each member contributes, but their work stays in isolation from each other. Each member knows what he or
she knows, but there's no group process that forces a synthesis of this wealth of knowledge. The classic example
is where each team member is responsible for one slide in a presentation, one card in a stack, or one quadrant in
a newsletter. It's not hard to take it that one extra step and have a true WebQuest out of all this time, effort and
learning. And it's a shame not to.
A BestWebQuest: Quest for Peace: An Internet WebQuest on Kashmir Peace Proposal Consensus
These COULD be WebQuests
Slacker's Delight
Can one person do all the work?
If an online activity prompts learners to construct new meaning, does this apply to all students in the
group? Or is everyone happy if the bright kid does all the work? A killer WebQuest jigsaws the group
process so that everyone must contribute. Even though some students' opinions might stand out in
their group, the final task must involve everyone's participation in a substantial way. The way this could
be a great WebQuest is if it is for use by only one learner. This would tend to be more advanced
learners who can hold multiple perspectives in mind at once and evaluate them. Adults and gifted and
talented students care good candidates for this approach.
A BestWebQuest: Antarctica - An Issue for all Australians
These ARE WebQuests, but they could be GREAT!
Tunnel Vision
The 3 R's? (Real, Rich and Relevant)
The next level of achievement in WebQuest design involves taking advantage of the contextual connections available
through the Web. If you're studying The Lord of the Flies, go beyond Golding to street children in Algeria. When
experimenting with the applied science of bottle rockets and catapults, discuss the ethics and efficacy of smart
bombs. When researching early colonists from the Mayflower or First Fleet, update things to boat people and
Globalization. Great WebQuests leverage the medium and the medium enables contextualizing the content to
intrigue, perplex, and enrich.
A BestWebQuest: 2030: Homesteading Mars
Ho-Hum
Are there Ah-Ha's & Assimilation?
Whereas a Tunnel Vision approach doesn't access the wealth of the Web's contexts and juxtapositions, a Ho-Hum
WebQuest may expose students to interesting contrasts and comparisons during the roles phase, but the final group
process doesn't produce anything from this rich mixture and cognitive dissonance. When students struggle to
assimilate new information and perspectives, they are creating new schema, achieving the cognitive ah-ha's that are
the heart of transformative learning. By applying a new model, set of constraints, or varying the scenario, learners
have the map of a conceptual pattern to help shape the development of new schema.
A BestWebQuest: A Separate Peace: A Teenager Experiences World War II
• Crool Zone - Webquest made up of a
Hotlist, Subject Sampler & Knowledge
Hunt & Rubric
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/nonviolence/intro.htm
Where can we put them?
Join the Research space “Global Teacher”
You will access your own Blogging (Web Space)
www.globalteacher.org.au
email Heather on
global.teacher@edumail.vic.gov.au
http://globalteacher.org.au/wp-signup.php
School Intranet/ folders/ LCMS
•Save as HTML
School Webspace
•You have paid already and don’t need a link off the
school website
Filamentality
•Add to the Global community
Best Webquests And Enter
Offer it up for “Evaluation”
Where to begin?
You decide
• Chicken or Egg?
• Question or Resources?
Question (Can Change)
•Sites for Everyone (Hotlist?)
Filamentality
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/kne_search.html#fil
•Essentials
Use the template
