WIT 2003

"WebQuests are as much about good teaching
as they are about technology...
it's important not to get distracted
and to remember why we're here.
It's all about teaching."

~ Bernie Dodge (Learning & Leading with Technology, March 2003)

Background
Structured online activities are the most efficient way for teachers to integrate the Internet into instruction. Just as teachers can't afford to spend hours of aimless surfing, neither can we allow our students to waste valuable instructional time wandering around the vast expanse of the web hoping to stumble across something useful. Structured activities, like WebQuests, are the most productive use of computer time.

WebQuests are designed to use students' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to develop students' skills in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. WebQuest creator Bernie Dodge defines a WebQuest as "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet."

Dodge clearly does not envision a WebQuest as an online worksheet. And neither should you! Online activities, like scavenger hunts, are a good way to structure Internet learning for children, but they do not challenge the students to think strategically and reflectively in the way that WebQuests do.

WebQuests can be created as short term or long term projects. In his article "Some Thoughts About WebQuests," Dodge suggests that knowledge acquisition and integration are the goals of a short-term WebQuest. Within the framework of one to three class periods, students will make sense of a significant amount of new information. Long-term WebQuests tap into higher level thinking skills. Learners are expected to analyze a body of information, transform it in some way, and demonstrate a deep understanding of the material by creating something other learners may respond to. Dodge envisions the long-term WebQuest as taking between a week and a month of classroom time. If your class is confined to Internet projects in a computer lab setting, that typically would work out to be something between seven class periods and an entire semester.

Read more about the building blocks of a WebQuest here.

A general rubric for evaluating WebQuests can be found here.

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Ready to begin your WebQuest?

Created by Pamela Levitt for the Web Institute for Teachers (WIT) 2003.