Webquests

= WebQuests = Megan Parcell

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Description and Uses of Technology
The WebQuest was first introduced in 1995 by Drs. Dodge and March at San Diego State University. WebQuests are online learning activities that are inquiry-based lessons where a majority of the information students learn is pulled from the web (Summerville 2000). Drs. Dodge and March (1995) define a WebQuest to have four qualities; they must in be inquiry based, the task assigned to the student should be engaging and achievable, the web resources should be predefined by the teacher and the time of task should also be determined (Trong 2011, p667). WebQuests are designed to help students use the multitude of resources on the internet without wasting time deciding between websites that are effective and those that are not. WebQuests can be used in a multitude of classroom types regardless of grade level or content area and can be set in many different ways.

In a WebQuest the teacher structures the activity to have an introduction to the task, the process the students will follow, the resources and websites the teacher has recommended, an evaluation (as in questions, illustrations or a prompt) and a conclusion to the activity as in grading or assessing the success of the WebQuest. The WebQuest should be scaffold based on new content. The WebQuest is used after new information is presented so that the students have an opportunity to better understand it. The activity is structured with different essential websites and resources from the web and a motivating and inquiry-based task for the students to accomplish with the information they gained from the outlined web resources. The WebQuest can be done as an individual activity or in a group setting. There is a lot of research to suggest that there are positives to both groupings as long as the WebQuest is left as a constructivist activity (Trong 2011). In a group setting, students are able to work collectively to pull more information and value from the websites being used. However when WebQuests are facilitated as an individual activity, the student is able to move at a pace that is accommodating to them and is able to replay animations and revisit websites as needed.

WebQuests are a constructivist activity. They also integrate inquiry-based and project-based learning. With a WebQuest, the learning experience becomes more student-focused and less teacher-focused. The students take the knowledge they gained through direct instruction and apply it to the websites selected by the instructor (Trong 2011). The students are allowed to explore, manipulate and play with the web resources to increase the understanding of the topic. Through the use of a rubric, the teacher can guide their students to the proper outcome without putting too much structure on their learning. Teachers can access information about WebQuest through Dr. Dodge's website through San Diego State University (//http://webquest.org/index.php//). This website offers information on how to build a WebQuest and different valuable uses of the technology resource.

Important Findings on Student Outcomes
WebQuest can be generated by teachers or they can be opened up to a student-generated project. Students can generate their own WebQuest by surveying different websites based on criteria and content to come up websites that further their understanding of content. This constructionist approach to web-based learning has created many positive student outcomes. Since this learning model technology has been around for over a decade, there has been a great deal of time for teachers to document their findings on using WebQuests.

The use of internet-based projects in the classroom, including WebQuest, offer many critical skills to students (Trong 2011). When WebQuests are used as problem-based learning tools one of the positive consequences is the encouragement of a student's critical thinking skills. The student is able to gain a deeper understanding of classroom content and increase their ability to address problem-based circumstances. The best outcome to using WebQuests, whether teacher developed or student developed, is that in which the student is presented with a problem, they develop the skills to work through the problem, research an answer, weed through applicable information and arrive at a solution. These abilities to persevere through a critical-thinking problem are skills that stay with students throughout their life. Many studies have found that WebQuest can be used in a variety of classrooms (Summerville, 2000, p31). They can be used in classrooms where students have strong computer skills and a high familiarity with the internet and classes where students are still developing their computer and web-based skills. Research finds that WebQuest cannot be used as the only way students are introduced and taught a concept. When WebQuests are the sole type of instruction there is often no significant difference or a slightly negative difference in scoring to students who were taught the information in a traditional, teacher-driven, direct instruction classroom (Gaskill, McNulty, Brooks 2006). The WebQuest has been researched to be a more successful learning tool when it supports information presented and taught in a more conventional classroom.

With any tool used the in the classroom, many teachers have developed rules or restrictions on how they set up and facilitate WebQuests. In order for them to be effective and to keep students responsible for the task, there must to be parameters set up around the consequences of looking at websites that are off-topic or inappropriate. If these measures are set up and the students are aware of the consequences there is a better chance that they will stay on topic and produce or complete a WebQuest that has genuine meaning and purposeful learning.

Emerging Trends and Open Issues
WebQuest have been studied and researched for educating many different groups of people. One group using WebQuests are using it to further the education of preservice teachers (Summerville 2000). As students in the classroom and preservice teachers becomes more tech-savvy, there is less of a need to train preservice teachers with old pen-and-paper models of lessons. The WebQuest also moves students away from wasting time; aimlessly searching for applicable information online and move them to using evaluated, targeted websites that permit students to be more productive. By training preservice teachers on methods that integrate technology, like a WebQuest, they are more likely to integrate the technology into their own classroom. The more comfortable preservice teachers become with technology early in their teaching career the more likely they are to continue to explore and use other forms of technology throughout their career.

Another area where WebQuest are being explored is using them to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. Reading is a fundamental skill with EFL students and WebQuests can be used to allow students to practice their reading through the use of multimedia, manipulatives and technology to build skills in English literacy (Trong 2011, p664). Studies have shown that WebQuests have the ability to increase a student's success in learning English. They help the learner increase their motivation and participation in class and it creates more opportunities for the student to have genuine interactions with the desired language. The use of the internet helps the EFL students have increased exposure to hearing and reading the target language. Since this is a newly researched area, more experiments with EFL students of different primary languages would help to make the data more conclusive.