WebQuest

💥Would you want to Develop the Autonomy of Your Students? 

💬Would you like to Cultivate Students' Sense of Teamwork?

🙆If your answers are yes! !

🙌Then, give WebQuest a shot!!

SO, you may ask what is WebQuest? 👀

WebQuest is a task-based activity that requires students to accomplish tasks by the websites that the teacher prepares for them.

How to find the examples of WebQuest?😵

Last week, I  introduced a website called Questgarden (click it). There are lots of resources on WebQuest, task-based activities. These resources are different from what I have known before about tasks. 

By exploring Questgarden, you could find tons of examples that other teachers designed. You could search the WebQuest that you are interested in by entering the keywords or by selecting the subjects and grades. 

Firstly, click on the button "search for examples" on the left side of the home page.

 

Then, you could find there are three options for you to search the examples.

Now, you could explore the examples of WebQuest here.

Let's look at one example together! 💃

 

" An English Holiday" is created by Michelle Malone. In this task, students are required to make a plan for their trip to England. What they are supposed to do is to browse the provided websites and collect the information that they need.

On the student page, which is designed for students to read, we could see that there are six components introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, and credits.

On the teacher page, there are five components, introduction, learners, standards, process, and resources.

We would look through the student page together below.

Introduction

In this part, the teacher introduces the background information of their destination to students, the history of England, which could get students familiar with their trip to England.

Task

This part illustrates the aim and background information of the trip.

Process

Students are required to collaborate and divide their work. Each of them would be responsible for one part of the planning. They need to collect the information from the provided website and then make the decision about places together.  Then they are supposed to make the brochures by Microsoft Publisher independently.

Evaluation

The teacher would evaluate students' brochures according to the standards from different aspects. 

😍Strengths

So, from my perspective, there are several advantages to applying WebQuest in class.

- It could develop the autonomy of students. 

   WebQuest requests students to learn or find information by themselves instead of being provided by teachers. From the example above, students are required to collect the information from the provided website independently. 

-It could promote teamwork.

Students are required to work together, discuss, and make decisions together. They would learn how to work in a group and develop their awareness of being a team through the negotiation of information.

-It could enhance their ability to use technology. 

Through browsing the provided website and outputting their result, they would gradually learn how to search for information and present their work by computer.

-It is authentic, which could raise students' interest and promote their motivation.

Taking the "an English Holiday" above as an example, students may be enthusiastic if they are going to plan a trip. They could decide where they would like to go on their own, which could motivate them to learn more from the website and during the searching process.

😲Limitations

But, there are still some limitations if the teacher wants to apply it in class. 

-It may not be suitable if devices are not allowed to use in the class or the school cannot provide enough computers for students to use.

-It may confuse students if they study in the a teacher-centered class before. 

But, I think in this circumstance, teachers could prepare more for students before they come to WebQuest. Teachers could break the tasks step by step and scaffold students to accomplish the task.

-It may consume much time for teachers to design and prepare the task. 

But, I would like to give WebQuest a shot in my future class and see what would happen next. 😝

Hope you would enjoy exploring WebQuest in your teaching.

💗If you have any question about it, feel free to comment below. 

Hope to see you in my next blog. 👋