WebQuests
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| What Should Be Included In a WebQuest |
ICT can be used for entertainment, to create and display digital media and it can also be to teach, otherwise known as e-Learning. WebQuests are a way for teachers to create a series of lessons from 1 to 3 or a longer period focused on a unit of work which could last from a week to a month. Webquests allow students to feel independent from their teacher and peers, learning and developing their cognitive skills. Knowledge about their topic, but also the ICT that they are using is learnt by the student, by using the same or similar programs in more than one lesson will allow the students to have practise at ICT programs improving their skills at memory and problem-solving.
Bernie Dodge (1995). uses the reference of Marzano (1992) for discussing the types of skills that define WebQuests as a cognitive tool, in his web page Some Thoughts About WebQuests. The skills that are learnt and developed when using a WebQuest are ones that involve thinking; such as comparing, classifying, inducing, deducing, analysing errors, constructing support and analysing perspectives. Dodge highlights the importance of these cognitive skills for students for participate in WebQuests, he also underlies how WebQuests support the development of creativity for both teachers and students, through the imagination that is created by the teacher and is carried on by the students. This website is a good source for understanding the cognitive side that goes into participating in WebQuests, it really shows how ICT can be used as a cognitive tool.
Bernie Dodge is the developer of WebQuests, his purpose for WebQuests were to make sure students can be actively involved in their learning environment; making learning engagement an enjoyable and independent experience.
Here is a website that focuses on online maths games for helping numeracy, which could be used in a Webquest:
Online games are made for all learning styles, visual, auditory and tactile, visual learners are given the chance to learn from moving and still graphics, diagrams and easy to understand written information, auditory learn best from the oral sounds in the games and tactile benefit from the 'doing' aspect of Online games.
Making sure that the online games consider the necessary types of development in relation to the topic in particular, cognitive skills, allows students to benefit from the game as a cognitive tool. Students creativity is developed as the games include different imaginative ways of teaching a topic.
References
Dodge, B. (1995). Some Thoughts About WebQuests. http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html
Marzano, R. J. (1992). A different kind of classroom: Teaching with dimensions of learning. Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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