WebQuests

WebQuests have been around since 1995 and involve student activity and inquiry into (preferably) a meaningful and authentic task or issue by integrating technology and the internet into the unit of work.

Susan Brooks-Young in her book 'Critical technology: Issues for school leaders' (2008), outlines the six elements of a WebQuest:

1. Introduction - explanation or background of the WebQuest.
2. Task - what will be accomplished by completing the WebQuest.
3. Information sources - list of resources; Internet sites, print materials, classroom resources, she even suggests content area experts who  may be available by email or a scheduled video conference.
4. Process - the steps taken to complete the activity.
5. Guidance - FAQ's and direction for completing specific steps.
6. Conclusion - closure for the activity

My initial thoughts when first introduced to the concept of WebQuests were:

• What an exciting unit for students (if it is something that interests them - after all, not everyone is necessarily interested by the same issues/topics, however real world they are)
• What a lot  of work to create, and keep up to date, a really good one.
• Are they being done in Australian schools (namely my kid's school)?

Brooks-Young does confirm that they do take more time in general, researching good sites and resources, but it is dependent on the subject and whilst it is unsaid, I think depending on the the teacher and their dedication to the project.

It has been quite some time since I completed my Grad. Dip. Ed. and those were the days when the Internet was starting to become widely used at home, but before it was widely used at school. So none of my instruction involved the integration of technology into the curriculum to engage students. I observe that the availability of technology and computers remains a hot-button topic in the news and current affairs shows, but it remains unknown just how much technology is integrated into the daily life of secondary school students to me.

My child is at a school where we are obliged to purchase notebooks for them to use on a daily basis, and they do have those nifty interactive whiteboards in many of their classrooms, so I'm confident that there is a high use of technology in that school. But just how well is it used I am not sure. Are they given projects like WebQuests to stimulate and sharpen their use of the available technologies? Are the teacher's competent and confident in their use of the technologies? These questions apply to both private and public schools.

My thoughts are that in general, no on both counts.

Given the skills of undergraduate students coming through the library for instruction or asking questions, so many of them seem to only skim the surface in terms of searching abilities and strategies, use of alternate sources of information, and ability to use technologies. It's like they got shown how to do one thing, and that's all they have bothered to do since.

As for instruction, I'm not even sure if my university  has an interactive whiteboard for the ed students to practice on. One thing I am sure of though, is that many of the disciplines are at uni are using videos, blogs and podcasts, as well as PowerPoint presentations to promote assessment.

The point of that little rant was that I'm not entirely sure how well many such units of work would be put together by older teachers with little skill or confidence in technology, and how well they would be put together by younger teachers with limited skills in using the technology.