Faulty Lightbulbs are as Useless as Faulty Links

        This week, in the course Instructional Applications of the Internet, we were asked to visit a few different WebQuest sites and critique them based on the requirements of the evaluation rubric. The whole premise of a WebQuest is to provide students with a higher level thinking task and useful resources they can visit in order to help them accomplish the given task. For instance, one of the WebQuests I looked at for the course assignment required the students to study important achievements in ancient Mesopotamia by visiting a variety of informational websites. They had to then determine the three achievements they felt most strongly impacted both ancient and modern society, and create a poster and presentation to explain their selections. 

         The ideology behind creating and utilizing WebQuests in the classroom is well thought out and instructionally sound. They are intended to promote higher level thinking skills, and the students are provided with sites that an educator has already determined are useful and reliable. You do not end up with students all over the World Wide Web, hoping against hope they will find information that is valid and that pertains to what it is you want them to learn. The most common problem I have noticed with WebQuests, however, is that many of the links no longer work properly. If you do a search for a WebQuest that matches the content you are working on in class, be sure to read through the entire site and check to make sure each link works. A faulty lightbulb is as useless for providing light in a darkened room as a faulty link is for providing information to students to use in their research.

          My recommendation for you teachers out there is to create one solid and well designed WebQuest every summer on a topic you know is covered in the standards in one of the subject areas that you teach. This will give you ample time (that you do not have during the school year) to locate interactive and worthwhile websites for the Internet quest, and to develop your site so that it is both engaging and visually appealing. I would encourage you to go through the WebQuest as if you were a student the week before you plan on using it in your classroom. This way, you can ensure that all of the links still work properly in order to access the resources. Over time, you will find that some of the websites are taken off of the Internet and are no longer worth having linked to your WebQuest. If it is a WebQuest that you have created, you can simply go online to find another great website to replace the one that no longer works. I am not suggesting that you should never use WebQuests you find on the Internet made by other educators, but would strongly encourage you to create your own seeing as it is easy to make slight changes and adjustments as needed. If you find an online WebQuest that works great one year, but then the next year three of the links are faulty, you no longer can use the resource as part of your instruction. If it were your own, it would be a quick fix.

        Our group created a WebQuest through Weebly. It allows you to build websites of any kind (though we used it to build a WebQuest specifically) and it is completely free of charge to use most of its features. For an additional yearly fee, you can include HD videos and audio clips. We found that Weebly provides more liberties and options in customizing your WebQuests than you get with building sites such as Zunal. If you are just getting started on WebQuests, here is a basic chart showcasing what to include: 

     

Until next time...