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Chapter 3: Webquest methodologies . Professor Juan José Calbacho. Translated and revised by professor Daniel Vega Borrego.

3.1 Webquest 3.2 Webquest structure 3.3 Webquest methodology 3.4 Task types 3.5 Design principles of a webquest. 3.6 Miniquest and Scavenger Hunt.

3.1 Webquest.

A webquest is a teaching strategy normally designed as a web page. It is oriented towards the search, compilation and reprocessing of information with the final objective of developing a superior cognitive process in the students. With this in mind, a webquest poses the students with a challenge that must be creatively overcome via a final product, taking into consideration the process that they use along the way in order to do so. A webquest must be adapted to the ages of the students. In the case of preschoolers, tasks should be basic and suited to their skill sets. Webquests should include text, however it is also a good idea to include sound files so that the students have autonomous access to the information.

Bernie Dodge, who created webquests in 1995, defines them as follows:

3.2 Webquest structure.

Every Webquest has five sections.

An inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet. Webquests are guided and structured activities in which the tasks to accomplish are well defined, and all the resources to accomplish them are provided. In this way students make better use of their time, since they are focused on the use and transformation of information rather than on its search. Intellectual processes such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation are reinforced and developed. The Webquest model is based on collaborative learning and constructivism. All the process is seen as a scaffolding that ultimately allows the development of the knowledge needed to solve the problem posed by the task. To produce the finished product students primarily work in groups adopting different roles.

INTRODUCTION TASK PROCESS

AND RESOURCES

EVALUATION CONCLUSION

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Introduction:

Presents the subject to the students in a motivating way. The introduction gives the information about what is expected from the students and lays the groundwork for action. The more the subject is centered on the students' interests the better.

Task:

This is the heart of any webquest. It describes to the students what they will have accomplished by the end of the activity. Generally speaking, they will have to create a new product, or solve a problem, and in order to do that, the students will have to process and transform information. The task is conceived as a team exercise in which each person takes on different responsibilities.

Process and resources (some webquest providers separate this section in two):

Describes the various steps that students must take in order to carry out the activity. A central principle of webquests should be considered at this stage -- cooperative learning. A webquest is a didactic strategy aligned with the principles of knowledge as something to be socially distributed, indeed something that is built collectively.

Evaluation:

Coherently points out what is expected from the students and how they must proceed with the task. In this way, the instructor will be able to see whether or not the students have carried out their jobs, answered the questions and substantiated their conclusions with proper arguments. The final product and its quality will be graded as well.

Conclusion:

Reviews and reinforces the knowledge that the students acquired during the activity while encouraging continued learning. It is an opportunity to reflect upon not only the what was learned, but also the process used to achieve the goals.

3.3 Webquest methodology.

Characteristics of a webquest related to teaching and learning.

Methodological.

Webquests give particular importance to the learning process and group dynamics. On one hand, they promote learning and development based on synthesis, comprehension, information transformation and problem solving. On the other hand, webquests promote cooperative and collaborative learning, encouraging students to take on different roles. Webquests can also encourage individual as well as collective work in order to promote learning. Finally in the area of language and communication, webquests can easily integrate the four basic literacy skills. They are especially useful as an instrument for active and selective reading comprehension in which reading is a means and not an end.

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The teacher’s role.

The teacher is responsible for providing interesting and motivating webquests related to the content of the course. During the design phase, the teacher must select interesting and useful material to be utilized to fulfill the proposed task. The teacher is responsible for providing the students with the resources needed to create the final product. He also works as the organizer of the cooperative environment and can delegate the different goals to be accomplished by each student. He assigns the team members various roles and orients them on how they can carry out their tasks. It is imperative that the teacher be clear while communicating to the students what is expected of them, and exactly how they will be evaluated.

The student’s role.

Thanks to their emphasis on cooperation and collaboration, webquests reinforce a sense of respon-sibility in students towards both group and individual learning, since each member of the group is individually responsible for his part in achieving the goal and sharing the knowledge that he has acquired. For Dodge, a good webquest is one that creates situations that force the students to depend on one another. Webquests also favor the “learning to learn” competence.

Examples of webquests from different providers.

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Dodge’s original template established the following fundamental steps to designing a ebquest:

In addition to this basic layout, a self-evaluation, a brief didactic guide (educational level, objectives, content, etc.) and credit list (teacher, school center, class group, etc.) can be included.

Webquest is a didactic strategy that seeks to develop an advanced cognitive process (transformation, comprehension, comparison, elaboration and contrast of hypotheses, synthesis and analysis, etc.) To this end, group activities are suggested that require the sharing of knowledge in order to obtain a final product.

Webquest allows for an efficient and hands on use of internet resources which have been pre-selected by the teacher. Webquest requires students to carry out searches for information, and then to later reflect and make decisions based on that information. When possible, the themes should be controversial or polemical.

A class presentation of the didactic situation and the subject matter to be worked on.

Organization of the group and the role of each student.

Description of the task to the students specifying the procedure that they should use to carry it out.

Provision of the information and resources necessary to accomplish the final objective.

Resolution and conclusion.

Adell defines a webquest as "a didactic activity based on constructivist learning theories and teamwork with teaching approaches based on projects and re-search focused on basic teaching/ lear-ning activities”.

Carmen Barba points out that a Webquest is a research activity guided by Internet resources. It is a collaborative task in which each person is responsible for a portion of the whole. A good webquest forces students to use high level cognitive skills and prioritizes the transformation of infor-mation.

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3.4 Task types.

Dodge (1999) listed the following tasks that can be used in a webquest:

1. Retelling Task.

The easiest task. The teacher simply asks the students to absorb information and then dem-onstrate that they have understood it. This is done by producing a document, presentation or summary. The teacher should consider the degree of information transformation required of the students based on the following guidelines:

• Copying and pasting answers to questions is not sufficient. The format and the manner of expression must be different from the resources collected from the web.

• Activities should be designed to encourage summarizing, synthesis and elaboration.

• Students should receive guidelines as to what they are reporting on, and the way that the information is to be organized.

• Dodge adds that this type of task can be used as a sub-task for other more complex webquests.

2. Compilation task.

The teacher asks the students to gather information from specific sources and compile it into a unique format. Some examples are: preparing an index of educational resources, creating a book of recipes, gathering the work and information about an artist in order to create a digital exhibit, etc.

• When designing this type of activity, it is important to remember that students should be encouraged to utilize skills such as the organization, selection and exposition of infor-mation.

• In any webquest, there must be some sort of information transformation. In a compilation task, it is not enough to simply post a series of links. The links must be interpreted by adding a brief description of the content that they contain. A good compilation task will provide the students with diverse sources and then require them to rewrite and to refor-mat the information they uncover.

• The task should set parameters for selection, presentation and compilation. However, not everything should be pre-established. It is important to leave some decisions to the students and to grade them based on the consistency and reasoning behind their organi-zation. The teacher can also ask the students to develop their own selection and presen-tation criteria.

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3. Mistery Task.

This task seeks to catch the students’ attention by putting them in the middle of a mystery. Dodge highlights his successes with mysteries in elementary education, and in his opinion the same approach can be used successfully with adult students.

A good mystery task requires synthesis from a variety of sources in order to present a puzzle that cannot be solved simply by finding the answer on a specific webpage.

When designing a mystery task, it is important to be aware that:

• Students should be absorbing information from multiple sources.

• Students should be drawing inferences and generalizations about the information they have gathered.

• Students should be required to eliminate false leads that initially seem to be true.

4. Journalistic Tasks.

The teacher asks the students to carry out journalistic coverage of an event with some sort of educational interest. The students must gather the facts and organize them according to type (interview, news story, report, opinion piece, audio visual piece, etc.) thereby enhancing their writing and verbal expression skills.

In the final evaluation, Dodge has a preference for precision and accuracy of the information to the detriment of originality. For Dodge, a journalistic task is valuable in illustrating bias in the media. Each person has his own filters that affect the way he sees things and determine what draws his attention.

A well-designed Journalistic Task should require the students to:

• Be precise when contrasting multiple versions of an event.

• Broaden their horizons through different opinions and interpretations of events.

• Deepen their knowledge by researching background information.

• Acknowledge and examine their own biases and try to reduce their impact when producing journalistic material.

5. Design Tasks.

The teacher asks the students to develop a plan of action in order to meet a certain objective while adhering to specific restrictions such as a fictitious budget, R&D design criteria, legal regulations, etc.

According to Dodge, a good Design Task does the following:

• Asks students to design a genuine product needed at some particular place and time.

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• Describes the resources used and the restrictions encountered by real designers of similar products.

• Provides an unrestricted activity that promotes creativity.

6. Creative Product Tasks.

The teacher asks the students to create an art project in a given format such as a painting, theatrical play, poster, song, game, etc. The evaluation should be based on creativity and how well the students observed the artistic style restrictions proposed by the teacher.

Dodge point out the following concerns regarding Creative Product Tasks:

• Historical accuracy

• Adherence to a specific artistic style.

• Attention paid to the conventions of the chosen format.

• Internal consistency.

• Time, size and approach limitations.

7. Consensus Building Tasks.

The teacher creates a task which requires the coordination, consideration and, if possible, the accommo-dation of different points of view around a disputed fact.

Dodge says these kinds of tasks should:

• Encourage the students to consider different perspectives by studying a wide variety of sources.

• Pose dilemmas based on real life controversies present in schools or society at large.

• Be based on both opinions and facts, but not only the latter.

• The proper way to finalize a Consensus Building Task is the drawing up of a report that reflects the consensus that has been achieved. This document should be written for a specific audience, whether it be real or fictitious (newspaper, government, city council, etc.)

8. Persuasion Tasks

The teacher asks the students to defend a point of view to an audience. Dodge recommends that the audience be hostile or at least neutral to the opinion to be defended. The students must develop strategies and documents on ideas and methods of communicating opinions on topics such as education, health care, the environment, water conservation, etc.

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The students should be required to determine the following:

• The main idea to communicate and its subordinate ideas.

• The campaign's objective and characteristics of the target audience such as age, sex, educational level and other relevant data.

• The constraints and samples of the message format: printed advertisement, radio slot, bill-board, banner, etc.

• The teacher can assign each group of students a different message in a specific format while establishing the common ground for the class.

• The teacher can ask the students to produce a single message, or can coordinate a variety of formats based on chronology, or a planned advertising campaign.

• The teacher can provide examples of campaigns that are related to the topics of discussion.

9. Self Knowledge Tasks.

There are few examples of self knowledge tasks as it is not represented in the curricula. A good self knowledge task requires the student to resolve questions about himself. These tasks are not exactly short. They can be based on long-term goals, ethics and moral considerations, self-betterment, art appreciation, personal tastes in literature, etc.

10. Analytical Tasks.

The student is required to pay close attention to one or perhaps several issues. He must identify similarities and differences and understand the implications of both. This task makes the student under-stand cause and effect relationships. The teacher can ask the students to make thorough comparisons between phenomena, models, theories, authors, etc.

11. Judgment Tasks.

The teacher asks the students to exercise critical judgment. Students must be specific and establish some sort of rating. A good judgment task should:

• Present information to be evaluated, and lead the students to the taking of informed decisions among a limited number of options.

• Provide a topic or a set of criteria to judge. Support the students in the creation of their own personal approach to evaluating it, and then ask them to defend it.

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12. Scientific Tasks.

The teacher seeks to foster scientific scholarship. To do this he should:

• Include the development of scenarios based on background information gathered from both online and offline resources.

• Require a comparison of hypotheses with data obtained from a variety of sources (bibli-ographies, personal data and measurements, notes, etc.)

• Require the students to determine which hypothesis to support and describe their results and their implications in the form of a scientific report.

3.5 Design principles of a webquest.

Dodge (2001) coined the acronym FOCUS to describe the five fundamental principles to consider when creating webquest:

Basic principles in webquest design (Argote, J.I)

The popularity of webquests at all levels of education has led to the restructuring of tasks tailored to students’ abilities. Furthermore, it is possible to develop multidisciplinary webquests that cover more than one topic and can be related to several areas of knowledge.

Webquests can be designed around a specific issue, or as a module for use over longer periods of time.

Webquest must have an attractive and friendly design, facilitate learning and motivate students throughout the entire activity.

The design must allow for updating to prevent the rapid obsolescence of links and content.

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3.6 Miniquest and Scavenger Hunt.

Miniquest

A scaled down version of a webquest. It is intended for a single class session. Rather than a didactic strategy, a miniquest can be considered as the activity portion of a didactic activity. The structure of a miniquest has the following elements:

• Scenario: the context in which the disruptive situation takes place. The scenario also poses the question or problem that the students must respond to.

• Task: a series of questions designed to direct and stimulate research.

• Product: Specifies to the students the type of document, report or production they must create. These products should reflect the transformation of information into knowledge.

Scavenger Hunt

This strategy is simpler than a webquest, and for that reason the results are usually more basic. The strategy can be useful in obtaining information on a specific topic, and in initiating students into the use of the internet as an information search tool. As Vivancos points out, the main objective of a scavenger hunt is to “consolidate the knowledge of a curricula topic and encourage activities related to search, identification, validation, relations and the comprehension of information".

Unlike a webquest, a scavenger hunt is based on web information search strategies and does not deal with problem solving skills or the exposition of final conclusions. Scavenger hunts mainly pose fun activities that can be solved in an interesting way by small groups of students without promoting competitiveness among them.

One of the greatest advantages of this strategy is that it is easy for teachers to design and use. Its use in elementary schools is similar to webquests based on repetitive tasks. Questions asked and resources utilized during a scavenger hunt can take advantage of both text and sound.

In order to design a good scavenger hunt, it is necessary to select a topic and define didactic goals that are in line with the curricula.

The groups should be formed considering the students’ experience and knowledge of the internet. The more advanced students should teach those who are less adept with the technologies. Questions that are too general should be avoided, however their complexity will depend on the competencies the teacher wants to work on, and on the age and educational level of the students.

Adell and Roman point out that in addition to the learning of facts and concepts a scavenger task encourages:

• The stimulation of technology, information and communication skills along with practical knowledge about the internet and web browsing.

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• Basic thinking skills such as comprehension and knowledge building using presentation pro-cedures and instruments such as schemas, summaries, conceptual maps, notes, etc.

• The development of high level skills such as the application and analysis of knowledge. To this end, students are asked to categorize information, and then analyze and interpret it while comparing and discussing it.

Bibliography.

Adell, J. (2004). Internet en el aula: Las Webquest. Revista Electrónica de Tecnología Educativa. No. 17.

Area, M. Webquest - recurso para el Laboratorio de Educación y Nuevas Tecnologías. Universidad de La Laguna.

Argote, J.A. Internet en el Aula. Una Aproximación al modelo Webquest.

Dodge, B. (2001). FOCUS: Five Rules of Writing a Great Webquest. Learning & Leading with Technology. Vol. 28, Issue 8, p. 6.9.

Dodge, B. (1995) Webquests: A Technique for Internet-based Learning. Distance Educator. Vol 1, no. 2, 10-13.

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WEBQUEST EXERCISE -

Deadline:

GROUP 1 & 2 - 11th of December

GROUPS 3 & 3B - 18th of December

GROUPS 5 & 6 - 15 th of January

SEND THE EXERCISE TO THE FOLLOWING EMAIL: danielvega.ucjc@yahoo.es

The webquest has to be done individually.

SUBJECT FIELD: WEBQUEST_GROUPX_Last Name Name

Example: WEBQUEST_GROUP4_Vega Daniel

BODY MESSAGE: give me please your USER NAME AND PASSWORD SO I CAN ACCESS YOUR WEBQUEST, otherwise you will have to publish it.

Information about work has to be written on the GUIA DIDÁCTICA tab. Please be clear and brief, you don't need to fill in all sections.

MATERIALS The exercise must be done individually.

WEBQUEST CREATOR 2: this is the resource we will use.

http://www.webquestcreator2.com/

There is a short manual for this resource at the following link:

http://www.webquestcreator2.com/majwq/public/manual_wc2/manual_wc2.html

The quality of the webquests published in this webpage (and in others) is very irregular, so I recommend that you focus on those related to the subject of the webquest you want to develop.

Some good webquests:

Halloween

http://phpwebquest.org/newphp/webquest/soporte_tabbed_w.php?id_actividad=112383&id_pagina=1

The four seasons

http://phpwebquest.org/newphp/webquest/soporte_mondrian_w.php?id_actividad=113144&id_pagina=1

Phrasal verbs.

http://www.webquestcreator2.com/majwq/ver/vere/4695

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Periods of History

http://www.webquestcreator2.com/majwq/ver/ver/7063

Vocational Training.

http://www.webquestcreator2.com/majwq/ver/ver/2359

TIPS Use a clear, clean and appealing design.

Don`t forget to fill in the Teaching Guide / Guía Didáctica.

Don't forget that projectors have less contrast than a computer screen. It is very important to select a background color that provides legible contrast for images and text.

Keep the information as compact as possible. If you need to provide your students a fair amount of information you should consider attaching a pdf or a word document.

It is better to specify links to be opened in a new window, is much more practical while consulting the links of the RESOURCES tab.

Review the effectiveness of your proposal using the following document designed by Bernie Dodge: