The Joys of WebQuesting

Amazingly enough, I had never heard of WebQuests before the cohort, and that makes me just a little sad.  Even with that statement I feel a little out of the loop, but I think that just goes to show how little they are used.  The WebQuest idea is timeless, with students having research papers and projects assigned to them for years before technology was so firmly integrated into the classroom.  This is still the case today, with the traditional classroom opting for the standard poster board presentation or a 3-5 page research paper complete with works sited page *yawn*.  Do not misunderstand me, there is a time and place for research papers, and it is an invaluable skill that will serve students well throughout the rest of their life.  However, for those students who are not fascinated with the perfect 5 paragraph essay, or who are not struck with fits of glee when doing a proper MLA citation, we owe it to offer them something else.

            Okay, enough about the students.  We do so much to help them as is, between extra help, opportunities for extra credit, different teaching styles, they are going to be fine.  WebQuests allow teachers to hop out of their well honed rut too, and perhaps discover something they love that they never knew existed.  I have come up with numerous topics and questions for students, complete from test questions to speech topics, but ultimately it is a lot of the same kind of thinking.  When I was able to be creative, it was a game changer.  Let me design a website, create graphics, organize the layout, and in general explore the possibilities. 

“What made a successful factory during the industrial revolution?”  Stimulating yes?  No.  Although it might extract the information I am looking for it is boring, and something students will forget the minute they finish the test.  Now look at the WebQuest where they are expected to put on the hat of an engineer, accountant, factory manager or land surveyor.  They need to tell me where they are going to build my factory, and it had better be an amazing presentation, because I only have enough money to build one factory and their classmates all have their own ideas too.  Foster the competition and creativity, let students role-play and develop their own unique ideas on history.  Test questions can try to do this, but they will ultimately fail.  WebQuests allow for the immersion that can truly impact a student’s learning.  Give a student a white piece of paper with your questions, and then give them an interactive website scenario and ask them for an honest answer.  More often then not, the students will make the decision for you.