Seek and you shall find

Hi all, hope you are all doing well ☺it’s great to welcome you again to my blog! 

 

What is it?

 

Today I would like to introduce another tool that integrates technology into teaching and learning. Please, welcome the popular veteran 🏆 WebQuest. Although it started in 1995, with the recent increase in online learning many educators renewed their interest in WebQuest. Your students will definitely like the guided and scaffolded way of researching ideas online in order to solve challenges and complete tasks.

 

How useful is it for language learning?

 

🕵🏼‍♀️‍     Authentic and focused on real life skills

❓ Inquiry – oriented task

🪜     Scaffolded

👫     Collaborative skills

🌐     Web based project

‍🧑🏽‍💻     Technology skills building

🔄     Reviewing and recapping

💡     Exploring a new idea

 

Any issues?

 

It’s important to stick to the original WebQuest formula and ethos. Tom March (2005), a co-founder of the idea emphasises the activities had to be “real, rich and relevant”. It is an authentic method and therefore its implementation should be based on the original principles, such as :

promotion of higher order thinking and inquiry skills

problem-solving nature of the tasks

effective integration of technology

   

Those who feel inspired by WebQuest and want to create their own project should ensure it is not misused and all the principles are understood and followed accordingly. 

 

Any more useful info?

 

There are thousands of WebQuests available in the Quest Garden, but if you feel you need to adapt an existing project to your students’ needs, there is a helpful page Adapting &Enhancing Webquest that will guide you through a step-by-step tweaking process, which is shown in the diagram:

 

Finally, I would like to share with you my opinion on the quest Let’s open a restaurant created by Iman Satori. It is a project for adult English language learners and is particularly useful because it provides opportunity for practising real world skills – setting up a business.

 

The tasks are laid out very clearly and designed to engage students’ individual capabilities (eg. different job roles). 

It allows students to use their imagination and problem-solving skills in a practical context. I particularly like the fact that the task included requirements for the language that students should practise (eg. modal verbs, offering advice or making suggestions) and examples (evidence of scaffolding). Use of the Web has been thought through and the list of the websites is very straightforward. It is a multi-tasking, complex project that involves researching and team-working. I think it would appeal to the students who are preparing to make their career choices or, as suggested, adults who can try different job roles in a professional context. This Quest provides plenty of opportunities to practise language skills which are then evaluated during oral and written presentations. Even the template evaluation table is provided!

 

• My advice would be to make a few adjustments to the websites list that students will need to work with – if you don’t live in the US, you could replace the American websites with the local ones which would be relevant for your area.   
• Also, the Quest would benefit from some materials in the Teacher page which has no content at the moment. However, this is an optional section which teachers can fill in with their own instructions and observations that are relevant to their students.

 

👩🏼‍🏫I definitely think that WebQuest projects can bring additional variation to my teaching and hence increase the enjoyment and engagement of my students. 

Reference:

March, T. (2005). The new www: Whatever, whenever wherever. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 14-19.