One of my favorite topics to learn about and teach about is history, thus I found a WebQuest on United States history to see if I thought it measured up as a good method for teaching on my favorite subject. I found a WebQuest titled "Discovering America" about historical landmarks in the United States.
The introduction for the WebQuest is very brief and while it does describe what the activity will be about, it does not really engage the students or seem like an exciting or fun activity. Instead, that comes at the beginning of the task section.
The WebQuest does seem to be a proper use of the internet however. It has lots of pictures and four links for each of the research topics (each of the national monuments). The links all take the students directly to the sites and they are of a variety of sources. The worksheet that the students are to be filling out is even found on the site.
The questions on the worksheet are appropriate and while most of them are knowledge based and lower level thinking, there are some questions that require more than just searching the site for the answer. Some require the students to make connections between the material and their own lives, thus engaging prior knowledge.
The directions are very detailed and follow in an orderly fashion for the students. All the links tell the students what topic they are looking for on the sites to save time and decrease frustration when using the sites to answer the questions. The links appear useful and appropriate as well as the subsequent tasks.
The conclusion does provide a good wrap up of what the students should have accomplished and completed by the end of the quest and ties into the task. The conclusion does not however provide anything for further inquiry into the subject matter.
The WebQuest was posted by a Miami University student and she does describe what the students should be able to get out of the assignment. It does not really provide any supplemental materials or ideas however.
Overall, it is not a bad WebQuest, but there is definitely room from improvement.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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