Web-QuestsElizabeth Barton

Red Lion Area School Districtbartone@rlasd.k12.pa.us

What is a Web-Quest?

• A Web-Quest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all of the information that learners work with comes from the web

• Any topic can be adapted to a web-quest if there is enough good information on the web

• A good web-quest must have the following 5 attributes

• 1. It should be designed around a task that students can complete

• Example: You will be requesting a museum to purchase your artwork while in the role of a famous artist

• 2. It should require higher level thinking, not summarizing.

• Example: Identify major themes in your artwork and analyze why those themes would be important for a museum to include in its exhibit

• 3. It should make good use of the web

• Example: Give websites where students can go to get important information like

• Art History Resources

• Artcyclopedia

• 4. It isn’t a research report, students should not present a summary of the information they find

• 5. It isn’t just a series of web-based experiences, students will not just look at one page and another. Their task will guide them through the web with a purpose.

How do you do it?

• Step one is to choose a topic that you will be able to design a task around and one that will have a variety of information available on the web

• Once you have your topic you can design your task.

• Topic- Famous Artists

• Task- Complete a presentation to a museum in the role of a famous artist.

• Determine how you will grade the final product and what the final product will look like

• Create a rubric that specifies what you are specifically looking for

Creating Your Web-Quest

• First you will need to format an introduction to your students

• Next you will need to lay out the task for them

• Third you will describe the process and activities that the students will have to complete

• Fourth you will list the resources, mainly websites, that your students will need to use to complete the task

• Fifth you will list how you will be evaluating their final product

• Finally, you will conclude your web-quest with a reminder of what the students will learn at the end of the process

Examples

• Italian Unification

• The Little Rock Nine

• Freedom Fighter or Terrorist?

Formatting your Web-Quest

• You can use a variety of online resources to format your webquest for you, or you can create it yourself!

• You can create a document in Microsoft Word, save it as a webpage and hyperlink it to a webpage you already have

• You can create it in iWeb on a Mac and upload it to the web

Credits

• WebQuest.Org was used to create this presentation about WebQuests

Your Turn

• Questions?

• A WebQuest about WebQuests

• Contact Me at bartone@rlasd.k12.pa.us

Resources

WebQuest.Org will have a lot of resources to help get you started creating Web-Quests. One of the best features is the free online authoring programs that will walk you through creating your web-quest and they will make it available online!Best Web Quests will give you examples of rated web-quests listed by content area. Why make all new web-quests if they already exist?Creating Web Quests is a site that helps you get started. It also has an evaluation form for websites to help you determine if its a good site to use in your webquest.Atlantis Word Processor helps shows you how to save a document as a web page.