What is a Webquest inquiry-oriented online tool for learning (Bernie Dodge)inquiry-oriented a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web. WebQuests: – can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-long unit; – usually (though not always) involve group work, with division of labor among students who take on specific roles or perspectives; – are built around resources that are preselected by the teacher. Students spend their time USING information, not LOOKING for it.

What kind of topics? The best use of the WebQuest format is for topics that are less well- defined -- tasks that invite creativity and problems with several possible solutions. They can address open-ended questions like: –What should be done to protect America's coral reefs? –What kinds of people were most likely to survive the sinking of the Titanic? Why? –What was it like to live during the American Gold Rush? –What would Mark Twain think about the lives that children live today? –How do other democracies deal with social problems like crime, and what, if anything, can the U.S. learn from them?

Essential parts of a Webquest? INTRODUCTION TASK PROCESS RESOURCES EVALUATION CONCLUSION

Introduction Goal: –To make the activity desirable and fun for students. –When projects are related to students' interests, ideas, past experiences, or future goals, they are inherently more interesting. –The goal of the motivational component is to engage and excite students at the beginning of each WebQuest.

Task A formal description of what students will have accomplished by the end of the WebQuest. First, the teacher finds resources for a particular topic on the Web. Then, the teacher devises an activity for the students that incorporates the information from the various sites. This task should be doable and interesting. Developing this task -- or the main research question -- is the most difficult and creative aspect of creating a WebQuest. Students can be asked to publish their findings on a Web site, collaborate in an online research initiative with another site or institution, or create a multimedia presentation on a particular aspect of their research. The task should be visually and aesthetically appealing, inherently important (global warming, acid rain, welfare policy, etc.), and fun for the students.

Process This is a description of the steps learners should go through in accomplishing the task, with links embedded in each step.

Resources This section of the WebQuest consists of a list of the resources (bookmarked Web sites, print resources, etc.) that your students will need to complete the task.

Evaluation Each WebQuest needs a rubric for evaluating students' work. The standards should be fair, clear, consistent, and specific to the tasks set. Many of the theories of assessment, standards, and constructivism apply to WebQuests: clear goals, matching assessments to specific tasks, and involving the learners in the process of evaluation are all concepts from earlier workshops that apply here.assessmentstandardsconstructivism

Conclusion This step allows for reflection by the students and summation by the teacher. Setting aside time for discussion of possible extensions and applications of the lesson honors the constructivist principle: "We learn by doing -- but we learn even better by talking about what we did." During the concluding section of a WebQuest, you can encourage your students to suggest ways of doing things differently to improve the lesson.