Interactive Educational Multimedia has just published my most recent article, Revisiting WebQuests in a Web 2 World. As the subtitle indicates, with Web 2.0, “developments in technology and pedagogy combine to scaffold personal learning.”
The WebQuest was launched in 1995 to scaffold advanced cognition by integrating the “ill-structured” nature of the World Wide Web with a process that guides novices through decisions and experiences that characterize experts’ behaviors. Recently, the Web has morphed into Web 2.0 with its social networking sites, blogs, wikis and podcasts. Given this richness, revisiting WebQuests is in order. This paper reviews the critical attributes of true WebQuests and reviews recent research in thinking routines and intrinsic motivation to recommend new paths for WebQuests that could scaffold student use of Web 2.0 environments, enabling a shift toward authentic personal learning.
You can download a pdf of the entire article which includes background on the MyPlace Project from the IEM Website.
Really interesting article thanks Tom. Many points to consider when I am creating my next WebQuest, although it seems a natural progression for me, to upgrade the tasks to include Web 2.0 publishing. It reminds me of similar changes I am making to my delivery of the Intel course, to encourage Web 2.0 applications, rather than simply Microsoft Office. By the way, I wonder if you might consider Ning communities as an alternative to Elgg in your model. Its similarities to a MySpace format is what appealed to me in its potential for classroom application, and it is even better now an ad free version for education has been negotiated.
Hi Suzanne,
Nice to hear from you and thanks for the suggestion regarding Ning. I haven’t been completely happy with elgg so I’ll “revisit” Ning as well. Also thinking about DrupalEd as an alternative. I use Drupal for another site and I’m pretty comfortable with it. Thanks again for the tip and I hope all is well in Victoria.
Cheers,
Tom —