Lesson Six Comprehensive Assignment

My study of WebQuests this week entailed the following:

Strategy/Action Plan for my own WebQuest creation for Comprehensive Assignment,  Lesson Six, EDOL 533.1

Study all pages of "Concept to Classroom/Workshop: WebQuests/Explanation/Welcome..."

            from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index.html especially          "essential parts" or "six critical components page."

Study Dr. Dodge's paper "Some Thoughts About WebQuests."

Define short versus long term WebQuests for my project(s).

            Refer to "Exploring, Using Adapting, & Creating WebQuests.doc"

            Study Tip under Introduction:/1. in "What are the essential parts of a WebQuest?" page    on Concept to Classroom site                                     (http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub3.html)

            Study Tip under 3. Process on same page.

Study "Dr. Bernie Dodge's WebQuest template.doc"

Study Tom March's online articles "Why WebQuests?", "WebQuest Design Process", "Pre-           Writing Your WebQuest" and "Link Like You Mean It!"

Study '' Developing A WebQuest For Your Classroom, Basic Form.doc"

Supplemental Study Bushra Faisal's "Introduction to WebQuests.ppt." from             (http://teachnologymadeeasy4tchr.manageyourevents.net/webquest2.htm)

       and her/his How to Create a WebQuest from

            (http://teachnologymadeeasy4tchr.manageyourevents.net/webquest2.htm)

Decide which online tools to use to create WebQuest:

            Tom March's Pre-Writing template     (http://www.tommarch.com/learning/prewrite.php)

             Zunal.com to create scratch or adapt and existing WebQuest

                                                                        (http://www.zunal.com/index-create.php)

Introduce to target classes with http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestwebquest-hs.html

Continue intro with http://ozline.com/webquests/china/

For casting WebQuest refer to

            Christina J. Schindler's "WebQuests, Teaching with Technology"                             http://www.tcnj.edu/~caties/documents/WebQuests.pdf

   and

            Internet Expeditions, Exploring, Using, Adapting, & Creating WebQuests

            http://eduscapes.com/sessions/travel/create.htm

   and

            QuestGarden

            http://questgarden.com/author/create.php

   and

            Filamentality

            http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/

   and

            Zunal.com

            http://www.zunal.com/index-create.php#

Notes on Action Plan above. WebQuests are going to play a really important role in my teaching. As the list above indicates, I spent a lot of time this week looking through the WebQuest material available on the net. Dr. Goldberg was correct: If I had waited until the last minute I would never have finished.

I believe I now have a good basic grasp of WebQuests and was excited how nicely it dovetailed with my discovery of Virtual Worlds last week. I in fact created a WebQuest that will scaffold into a comprehensive Virtual World  exercise in Grade 10 MYP Technology Class. 

I learned a great deal from Tom March's various pages especially his "The WebQuest Design Process as used and developed by Tom March" page. I quote: "Professor Allison Rossett has described a useful equation. Envision the optimal learning outcomes for a particular unit or activity. Then compare that to the actual outcomes. The learning gap is the difference between Optimals and Actuals. Given a curricular unit you'd like to develop, look for the learning gaps. Keep these handy for when you want to state the Question and Task for your WebQuest."

The learning gap concept is brilliant and I believe I have had some success putting that into the Process section of my own WebQuest "Virtual Retail Space for Technological Product Sales." The students will have enough knowledge to start the Quest but by the time they are done will be pushed to really tap their deep thinking skills, will have to deal with their "leaning gaps."