Reading Reflection Two

http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/myoder/webquest.pdf

I chose to read “The Student WebQuest: A productive and thought provoking use of the Internet” by Maureen Yoder. I have never constructed a WebQuest before so I though this article would help broaden my knowledge.
I really liked the author’s definition of a WebQuest. Yoder states that “A well-written quest demands that students go beyond fact-finding: It asks them to analyze a variety of resources and use their creativity and critical-thinking skills to derive solutions to a problem. The problem is often “real world”—that is, one that needs a genuine and reasonable solution.”
I did not know that the term “WebQuest” or the idea was invented in 1995 by Bernie Dodge and Tom March. I thought WebQuests were much more recent. After all, I graduated with my bachelor degree in 1999 and don’t recall ever hearing or learning about a WebQuest.
This article gives many links with examples of WebQuests. Three websites that are highly recommended are: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html
http://ozline.com/webquests/intro.html, and http://discoveryschool.com/schrockquide/webquest.html

I found these websites quite helpful and good enough to be bookmarked for future use. The neat thing about WebQuests is that teachers have posted their lessons online. Educators from all over the world can share their ideas, lessons and knowledge.
The article also discusses the elements of a good WebQuest – introduction, task, process, resources, evaluation and a conclusion. This will be very helpful as I work on my final project. I may go back to this article as my project starts to take shape.