The WebQuest Story: A 21st Century Chronicle Bernie Dodge, PhD San Diego State University Bernie Dodge, PhD San Diego State University

Having access to great, free resources is not enough Looking at something ≠ learning

Real, important, lasting learning requires action, struggle and context

About, above, across, after, against, among, around, at, before, beside, between, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, into, near, of, on, off, over, through, to, towards, under, up, with.

Alex asked: What about outside?

Transmission Model

Traditional Teacher Student

Traditional Teacher Student Transmission

Constructivist Model

Inputs Constructivist

Inputs Transformation Constructivist

Inputs Transformation Outputs Constructivist

THE ANCIENT PAST 1995

Slide 17 The First WebQuest

What Felt New? They got to work right away Their conversations were deep They were engaged I only introduced, debugged and debriefed They were using authentic data

THE PRESENT

The Short Definition  A WebQuest is simply good teaching with the web.

The Longer Definition:  Constructivist lesson format  Wrapped around a doable and interesting task that is a scaled-down version of something adults do  Most (not necessarily all) material comes from the Web  Resources are pre-selected  Often (though not always) involves students taking on roles  Involves higher level thinking

WebQuest Assumptions  Authentic tasks are more engaging  Learning is enhanced by social interaction among learners  Higher level thinking skill development is essential and needs to start at an early age  Uncertainty and doubt are instructionally useful John DeweyLev Vygotsky

WebQuest Assumptions  Better to be evolutionary than revolutionary

Balance

WebQuests: Major Parts  Introduction  Task  Process  Evaluation  Teacher Page

WebQuests: Major Parts  Introduction  Task  Process  Evaluation  Teacher Page Critical Attribute: The task requires higher order thinking

Bloom’s Taxonomy WebQuests Web Exercises

Bernie’s Taxonomy Life Verbs Classroom Verbs Decide Design Create Predict Judge Know Tell Remember Apply Analyze Explain

A Few Examples

So how do you create lessons like this?

Status Today: Users  Over users in 120 countries  Over WebQuests created

We’re giving back to the net

THE FUTURE

WebQuests Will Evolve  Incorporation of Web 2.0 technologies  More video  3-D Environments with avatars

Our challenge isn’t about technology It’s about pedagogy As we move towards e- learning, we shouldn’t recreate 19th century schools

About above across…

Bernie’s Taxonomy Life Verbs Classroom Verbs Decide Design Create Predict Analyze Know Tell Remember Apply Explain

The WebQuest Story: A 21st Century Chronicle Bernie Dodge, PhD San Diego State University Bernie Dodge, PhD San Diego State University