Web Quest

My Thoughts on WebQuest

WebQuest is an amazing resource for teachers who want to challenge and inspire his or her students. By utilizing WebQuest, a teacher can develop lessons that will enhance students' problem thinking and decision making skills. WebQuest is a tool that teachers can use to create lesson plans that will allow the student to analyze and evaluted data in order to construct a creative solution to a given problem. It is  a safe way for the students to use the World Wide Web, without the teacher constantly worrying about his or her students navigating the Web on their own.

WebQuest was first developed in 1995 at San Diego State University by Bernie Dodge and Tom March.(Yoder 1999) The two wanted to create lesson plans where the students could link to the web in order to research information on a given scenario or question. Typically, the students are given the particular scenario and are provided with the resources that the students must analyze and evaluate, in order to answer the question to the best of the students ability.

As a teacher, I have the ability of searching created WebQuests on a search engine such as Google. Also, I have the ability of creating my own WebQuest. This particular piece explains what is needed in order to create a WebQuest (typically a scenario or question the students must solve) as well as tips on how to find the best resources for your students to use in order to answer the question.

Personally, I think that this is an outstanding way to make learning exciting and engaging for the students. As I teacher, I would be able to construct the learning that is taking place in my classroom by selecting the resources I want my students to analyze in order to solve a problem and at the same time, I am allowing my students the freedom to explore and express his or her interpretation of the data. Using WebQuest moves student think from understanding to evaluation, the highest form of thinking. I would be able to challenge my students in a intriguing way and the thinking skills need to answer such questions would reach the top of Blooms Taxonomy. Along with promoting higher order thinking skills, using WebQuest in my classroom would allow me as a teacher to incorporate multiple disciplines in to one lesson. For example I could pose a question that delt with the Civil War. By using WebQuest, I would be able to incorporate reading, writing, art, technology, communication and civility all within one lesson! What more could you ask for as a teacher. I know that I want to learn more about WebQuest so that I can effectively use them in my classroom. I know that my students will truly benefit from WebQuests and so will I.