First Impressions
- Here’s a Stixyboard for brainstorming “What are WebQuests?”
- Now let’s try Putting the WebQuest Pieces Together (doc)
A little history lesson & Background
WebQuests all started with this page posted by Bernie Dodge: Some Thoughts About WebQuests. I was team-teaching with Bernie in a teacher prep course on creating interdisciplinary units. I soon began a three year fellowship where the first thing I did was to post the first (non) WebQuest for use outside of our course: Searching for China (version 0.9). This was, “good, but not a WebQuest.” Why? A few years later it became this updated version of Searching for China.
Use the QuestGarden Search to explore others’ WebQuests. Use the Comments on this post to share good ones that you find.
Sample WebQuests by Tom or Web-and-Flow
Getting Started
One really good way to develop a WebQuest is from a ClassPortal. Below are the ClassPortals you’ve begun. Do any of the topics suit a WebQuest?
Reviewing ClassPortals from the group
- David Dawson’s idmskr.wordpress.com
- Mark Byrnes’s our20thcentury.wordpress.com
- Ilja Vanweringh’s austindentity.wordpress.com
- PLC’s plcservice.wordpress.com
- Steve Lee’s 73stevelee.wordpress.com
- Vin Healy’s healyvin.wordpress.com
- Natasha Crooks & Erica Morsman’s yr56fairytales.wordpress.com
- Cate Evans’ youhavetoreadthis.wordpress.com
If you want to use this approach (or begin a new blog for a WebQuest) you might want to copy/paste this template into a Page on your blog.
Guides for your Process
- Detailed Process for Drafting a WebQuest (doc)
- Tom’s Current WebQuest 2.0 Process (pdf)
- Use the article above and the Designing a WebQuest 2.0 (doc) and the links below as a guide.
- Freedom Fighter or Terrorist Group Scaffold Sheet (you can modify)
- Thesis Builder – to generate thesis statements and essay outlines
Collaborative Checkpoints: add your milestones – Questions, Roles, Tasks, etc.
Resources
Articles
- Tom’s Educational Leadership article, The Learning Power of WebQuests
- Tom’s longer version: What WebQuests Are (Really).
- Bernie weighing in on “Real WebQuests”
Pollution Solution has a process that can lead to constructing knowledge: https://questgarden.com/107/39/4/100726054756/process.htm
What does Australia Day represent to modern day Australians? – This has a good question / task
https://questgarden.com/105/86/3/100628025020/task.htm
This one depends on how well the Persuasive task is supported – whether it goes into new knowledge or just compiling facts :
https://questgarden.com/104/22/3/100528214735/process.htm
Endangered Neighbours – Introduced Species WebQuest
What is it like to live in Australia?
https://questgarden.com/100/94/9/100412182940/task.htm
I really like this one:Study in Hyperrealism
https://questgarden.com/100/73/6/100411064503/index.htm
Its about “War of the Worlds” by HG Wells and asks students to consider factors that made the 1938 radio broadcast so convincing. It looks at other hoaxes and asks students to compare the audiences then and now and then requires students to atempt to write a compelling artefact.
I agree James. The Process – especially when it gets to Day 3 is quite creative: https://questgarden.com/100/73/6/100411064503/process.htm
Choosing an Aussie city in which to live:
https://questgarden.com/103/09/8/100504094700/process.htm
Nobel Prize Winners
https://questgarden.com/107/57/9/100728092548/
Scary Science
https://questgarden.com/107/38/2/100724173412/
I like this one:
https://questgarden.com/24/74/8/060506043515/index.htm
quite useful with online tests and instructions of how to find topics and keywords in the task.