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August 22, 2007
Why WebQuests are so 20th Century
For many years I have been a great fan of WebQuests. They were really the hot ticket in the Wild West days of the Web back in the '90's. However, I think the time has come to move on and here's my reasoning.
First of all, the large number of educators who I meet still believe that a WebQuest is an online scavenger hunt. That was never true and the definition from 1995 bears that out.
Second, the benefits of WebQuests in the late '90's have largely been overcome in the wake of Web improvements.
- WebQuests were a great way for teachers to organize resources, but we now have del.icio.us accounts which are far richer and offer tag clouds that encourage broader thinking. We also have Wikipedia which predigests a lot of this for us and sends us off to great resources.
- WebQuests were a way for teachers and students to become more familiar with the Web...'nuff said.
- WebQuests provide a framework for scaffolding higher-order thinking...uh oh.
So now that we are in 2007, WebQuests no longer really do scaffold higher-order thinking.
- In most cases, the task is laid out for students right from the start so they are robbed of the higher-order thinking required to solve some problem set out for them and which the resources presented might support them in that thinking. To be fair, I looked at the WebQuest page and found these exemplars, which still have these problems. Tom March, one of the co-creators, tried to move the concept forward with his BestWebQuests.com and provides The 7 Red Flags: Warning Signs when Sifting WebQuests.
- The rich resources and search tools available on the Web now offer great opportunities for students collect, evaluate, and share resources. We'd be much better off helping students find resources that solve problems if the goal is to scaffold higher-order thinking.
If any more convincing is needed, just take a look at Instant WebQuests which encourages you to "Create a WebQuest in 15 Minutes." So much for thoughtful curriculum development.
But, I do believe (and taught for many years) that WebQuests were a great model for teaching with technology. I still believe that was true only now I think we've moved on by learning from these. Thanks, Bernie Dodge and Tom March! (BTW, both are still doing great work and a look at Dodge's Blog gives a hint that he might be sharing my point of view ... One Trick Pony!)
Posted by Pat on August 22, 2007 12:10 PM
Comments
It's no secret that I think the majority of existing WebQuests are disappointing. I make that point in just about every keynote or workshop I do.
It doesn't follow, though, that it's time to forget WebQuests and move on to the latest Web 2.0 shiny objects. To me, it's still time to help teachers to get it right, to implement WebQuests as I intended 12 long years ago.
Kids and teachers haven't really changed fundamentally over that time period. They both still need scaffolding for some things some of the time and there is still only limited time to get good things done in our antiquated school schedules. Letting kids graze the net freely while making up their own tasks requires more access and more time than most real schools have, though the kids are certainly doing a lot of that at home if they were born to the right parents.
The WebQuest model is an attempt get the best work done within the constraints of the time we have. Even so, in the age of NCLB, many teachers don't feel they have time for a five-day WebQuest. How much time do you think they have for an open-ended excursion with less structure? Once a year, maybe, after the testing days are done and the kids are braindead.
It's an imperfect world, and most of the WebQuests you see out there were created under duress by student teachers in a required course. The sheer numbers of these newbie creations can warp ones perception of what a WebQuest is.
I'm still committed to the approach as an ideal (and certainly not the only way) to teach, and have been spending my time making it easier for more teachers to make really good WebQuests. My hope is that QuestGarden will be the engine that puts more good examples out there and raises the bar for all of us.
Please don't relegate WebQuests to the past. They still haven't been widely or fully realized.
Posted by: Bernie Dodge on August 23, 2007 8:54 PM
hey pat i was wondering how do you put a session on your page for posting comments??
thanks
Posted by: Martha on June 24, 2008 3:23 PM
