Skip to main content

WebQuests -- A reflection 6.3.4

WebQuests are an exciting and valuable teaching tool. A well-planned WebQuest has guidance for students, a creative end project with room for flexibility, and links that help answer questions and positively add to the project. A strong WebQuest is designed for students to work independently, allowing the teacher to be a facilitator in students' learning rather than the sole dispenser of knowledge. 

WebQuests also have the the adaptive dimension, the ability to make adjustments in educational programs to accommodate students' diverse learning needs. They are the therefore a wonderful way of capturing students' imagination and allowing them to explore in a guided, meaningful manner. 

Communication, group work, problem solving, and critical and creative thinking skills are becoming far more important in today's world than having students memorize predetermined content. This is an emphasis of the 21st century skills which are designed to effectively integrate our learners into the contemporary global village as they grow in our different education systems. WebQuests play a key role in this regard.

The CCTI course emphasises integration of technology into teaching and learning and I am deeply convicted to believe that WebQuests go a long way in seeing this to pass. The learner applies her/himself to make learning take place over an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. This constructivist approach to learning, is a super learning tool that engages the learner from start to finish allowing her/him to build knowledge with her/his peers and subsequently share it in very innovative ways.

I have therefore built my own WebQuest and highly recommend this approach to learning.

Comments

  1. I agree with you when you say that WebQuests promote 21st Century skills like communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hallo Edward, yes webquests are better than having students memorize predetermined content.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with you Edward. We should have students on board from the start of the lesson to the end. WebQuests do just that.
    Thanks for your post Edward.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insight into my project work 6.2.4

In an attempt to state the curriculum objectives of the project with specific 21st Century skills and higher-order skills, I have written down the following: Objectives: Identify aquatic organisms in a water sample. (curriculum) Use sampling and counting techniques to estimate population size. (curriculum) Collaborate in groups to agree, with substantial reasoning, on the most appropriate sampling method to apply for each of the different water samples to be taken.(21st Century skill) Critically examine data on numbers of micro-organisms in the different samples and, considering other environmental factors observed, draw a conclusion about the patterns. (21st Century skill) Create a blog with content compiled by all learners, containing details of the story of the entire project, the observations made and the conclusions/hypothesis deduced.  (higher order thinking) Together influence the community to implement workable solutions which either guarantee the safe use of drink...

Research proves that children can perform better if teachers expectation of them is higher

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson's study showed that, if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from children, then the children's performance was enhanced. This study supported the hypothesis that reality can be positively or negatively influenced by the expectations of others, called the observer-expectancy effect. Rosenthal argued that biased expectancies could affect reality and create self-fulfilling prophecies. All students in a single California elementary school were given a disguised IQ test at the beginning of the study. These scores were not disclosed to teachers. Teachers were told that some of their students (about 20% of the school chosen at random) could be expected to be "intellectual bloomers" that year, doing better than expected in comparison to their classmates. The bloomers' names were made known to the teachers. At the end of the study, all students were again tested with the same IQ-test used at the beginning of the study....

My links for 4.6.3

Hello Group! I have tried to comb through the internet for websites that will provide support in determining the best digital literacies education strategy for a school. Kindly look through and share with me your opinions. http://www.teachthought.com/technology/63-things-every-student-should-know-in-a-digital-world/ http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/digital-literacy-skills/ http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/digital-literacy-across-curriculum-handbook http://classroom-aid.com/educational-resources/digital-literacy/ http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/10/29/ctq_crowley_digitalliteracy.html http://rpsconnected.rbe.sk.ca/2013/04/no-lights-no-camera-but-lots-of-action.html https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum http://swgfl.org.uk/magazine/Waving-Silently-Technology-and-Self-Harm http://www.digital-literacy.org.uk/Home.aspx https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002144/214485e.pdf