In class this week we learned about using WebQuests. I had never heard of a WebQuest and knew nothing about them. A WebQuest is an inquiry based activity in which students go to a specific WebQuest on the internet that guides them through a project in which they research information on the internet. They then use this information to do some sort of a project. Teachers can make their own WebQuest to be used by their students, or they can use one that has been created and shared here.
From the few WebQuests that I have had the chance to look at this week, I can already tell that they would be very useful in the classroom. We spent some time this week critiquing WebQuests and finding ones that encouraged group work and higher-level thinking, used time wisely, and made good use of technology. These are all very important criteria for a WebQuest because without any one of these a project can quickly turn into a waste of time. I was assigned the task of looking over several WebQuests and checking to see how technology was used in them. I was glad to see that most of them had the students to use multiple programs and activities on the internet to complete their projects.
Looking forward to my future classroom I hope I am able to incorporate WebQuests into my lessons. They seem like a really good way for students to learn while taking advantage of all of the good information found on the internet. With the amount of WebQuests already made and shared on the web there are endless possibilities of lessons across all of the subjects that can be incorporated into a classroom. I really like the WebQuest format because it allows for the students to gather and use information on the internet, yet it still gives them specific guidelines and instructions for doing so. I especially think I could use them as tools in Science and Social Studies to get students to dive in and learn about the world around them.
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