Feature C O U

F S

By Bernie Dodge Subject: Any

Audience: Teachers, technology coordinators, teacher educators

Grade Level: 3–12 (Ages 8–18) Technology: Internet/Web, e-mail Five Rules for Writing Standards: NETS•S 4, 5. NETS•T II, III. (Read more about NETS at www.iste.org—select Standards a Great WebQuest Projects.)

Copyright © 2001, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.2777 (Int'l), 6 Learning & Leading with Technology Volume 28 Number 8 [email protected], www.iste.org. All rights reserved. Feature

ince it was first developed in Find great sites. Probe the deep Web. According to one 1995 by Bernie Dodge with Orchestrate your learners and resources. report (Bergman, 2000), more than S Tom March, the WebQuest Challenge your learners to think. 550 billion Web pages now exist, model has been incorporated into Use the medium. only 1 billion of which turn up using hundreds of education courses and Scaffold high expectations. the standard search engines. What’s left staff development efforts around the is a hidden “deep Web” that includes globe (Dodge, 1995). A WebQuest, archives of newspaper and magazine according to http://edweb.sdsu.edu/ articles, databases of images and docu- webquest/overview.htm, is ments, directories of museum holdings, and more. Though some of this infor- an inquiry-oriented activity in mation can be rather obscure, you can which most or all of the informa- F find items that add a unique and inter- tion used by learners is drawn FIND GREAT SITES esting touch to a WebQuest. from the Web. WebQuests are One thing that distinguishes a good Take, for example, a WebQuest designed to use learners’ time WebQuest from a great one is the qual- about whales. A newspaper account of well, to focus on using informa- ity of the Web sites it uses. What makes people trying to save a beached whale tion rather than looking for it, for a great site? The answer varies with would add human interest and drama and to support learners’ thinking the learners’ ages, WebQuest topic, and to an otherwise routine lesson. By at the levels of analysis, synthesis, specific learning you hope to bring about. searching the deep Web you might find and evaluation. In general, though, you’ll want to find a link to a page in Thomas (a tool to WebQuests are appealing because they sites that are readable and interesting search U.S. legislative information on provide structure and guidance both for to your students, up-to-date and accu- the Internet, provided by the Library of students and for teachers. The stated rate, and come from sources your stu- Congress) describing legislation from ideal of engaging higher-level thinking dents wouldn’t ordinarily encounter the 106th Congress designed to protect skills—though making good use of lim- in school. whales. Searching through the Library ited computer access—seems to reso- of Congress’s American Memory Col- Master a search engine. How do you lection might lead you to a letter by nate with many educators. find great sites? It helps, first of all, to Thomas Jefferson on whaling and a A quick search of the Web for the fully master one or two of the most picture of a whale skeleton. word WebQuest will turn up thousands powerful search engines. It’s somewhat Searches of the TV Episode Guide of examples. As with any human enter- a matter of personal preference, but as and the Internet Movie Database will prise, the quality ranges widely. Many of this writing, most savvy users would take you to pages showing how whales WebQuests were created hurriedly to include AltaVista®, Google™, and per- have been portrayed in popular culture. complete a class assignment. Others ap- haps Northern Light™ at the top of Including such sites drives home the pear to have been developed over a their lists. (See Resources on page 10.) fact that what you are teaching is im- longer time and thoughtfully refined Most people do their searching by portant in the world outside school each year while being implemented. typing a few words into one search en- walls. Where do you find such ac- Some of the lessons that label them- gine (e.g., Yahoo!® or Dogpile®) and counts? I maintain a page called “Spe- selves WebQuests do not represent the then plow through a blizzard of irrel- cialized Search Engines and Directo- model well at all and are merely evant sites. It’s much better to learn the ries” that might help you find these worksheets with URLs. quirks and advanced search techniques resources off the beaten path. By closely analyzing what’s out there, of the better search engines to get what I’ve identified five general bits of advice you’re after faster. By mastering just a Don’t lose what you find. A practical that will help anyone create WebQuests few commands, you can quickly be- problem in lining up great sites is keep- that are head and shoulders above the come a better searcher than most of ing track of them. Most teachers do rest. Thanks to some wrestling with the the Web-using public. One Web page their work at more than one computer. alphabet, the five guiding principles can many have found useful is Seven Steps Sometimes you’ll be searching at your be captured in the word FOCUS: Toward Better Searching. desk at school. Other times you’ll be at

Copyright © 2001, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.2777 (Int'l), [email protected], www.iste.org. All rights reserved. May 2001 Learning & Leading with Technology 7 Feature your home machine, and someone will • If the only access to the Internet stu- debug each other’s conceptualizations. e-mail you a great site. You might look dents have is by a scheduled (and limit- Guidance on how to work together over the shoulders of your students and ed) set of lab periods, then a well- should be an integral element of the find something great you want to use in orchestrated lesson frontloads that lab process section of the WebQuest. Find a future lesson. So how do you store and visit with offline activities so students ready-made pages to support effective access your finds so that you can get to are prepared to use lab time well. cooperation on the Process Guides page them when you need them? Web-based • If all computers don’t have Internet developed as part of the San Diego City bookmark servers such as Backflip are a access, then students can access Web Schools Patterns Project. boon to teachers. Once you’ve set up a archives created on another computer How do you create positive inter- free account, you can log in from any and saved on their hard drives. dependence in a WebQuest? You create computer and look at or add to your separate responsibilities by having Organizing people. Designing a great list of bookmarks. One especially useful learners read different Web pages or by WebQuest is also a matter of organiz- benefit is that you can set up categories having them read the same Web pages and subcategories and put each book- ing your learners. Though having teams from differing perspectives. You can mark into some kind of organizational and roles for students to play is not a also divide the production responsibili- framework as you find them. critical attribute of a WebQuest, practi- ties in ways that parallel production cal considerations lead to group work careers in adult life (e.g., scriptwriter, being more common than not. Having graphic artist, or producer). The trap more than a superficial knowledge to avoid is creating separate roles that ORCHESTRATE of cooperative learning strategies has do not result in information all mem- LEARNERS AND proved to be a useful background for bers of the team will need to accom- RESOURCES O WebQuest designers. According to plish the end goal. Johnson and Johnson (2000), the critical attributes of a successful coop- Teachers who survive the first few years erative learning environment include on the job are masters of organizing the following: CHALLENGE children and resources. The experience YOUR LEARNERS • Positive interdependence: Learners per- TO THINK of not having enough books, globes, ceive that they cannot succeed with- C or frogs for students teaches one quick- out each other. ly to arrange activities so that resources • Promotive interaction (preferably face- can be shared. The same wisdom can to-face): Students help teach and ap- We’re passing through a period in be applied to problems of less-than- plaud each other as they wrestle with which standardized test performance optimal computer access. A great Web- authentic work. drives much of what happens in Quest is one in which every computer • Individual and group accountability: schools. At the same time, everything is being used well and everyone has The group is held accountable for around us tells us that tomorrow’s something meaningful to do at completing the task, and each indi- adults will need to analyze and synthe- every moment. vidual is held accountable for his or size information to succeed in most professions and to participate fully as Organizing resources. As of this writing her part in the process. citizens. It takes a gifted teacher to play and for the foreseeable future, there are • Interpersonal and small group skills: both games at once, but it can be done. not enough computers to go around. Most children (and many adults) A WebQuest is not the vehicle for mas- The creative response to that is to orga- need to be taught how to work tering a list of U.S. presidents and their nize your activities so that whatever ac- together. terms of office, but it can provide an cess you do have is used well. Here are • Group processing: Conversation engaging and complex backdrop on some of the possibilities: about how to improve the group’s which to hang bits of knowledge that effectiveness is deliberately built into • A single computer can be used to would otherwise seem static and inert. the process. drive whole-class discussion and ex- In an earlier era when content was ploration with the teacher, not the A well-orchestrated WebQuest has more stable, mastering factual informa- students, controlling the pace. these qualities as well. Good designers tion might have been sufficient. Teach- • One to 10 computers can be used as recognize that much of the learning in ing about Canada before the Web, for learning stations for students to cycle a WebQuest takes place away from the example, would typically involve as- through while others work offline. computer as students teach, debate, and signing individual provinces for stu- Copyright © 2001, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.2777 (Int'l), 8 Learning & Leading with Technology Volume 28 Number 8 [email protected], www.iste.org. All rights reserved. Feature dents to research in the library. Millions Journalistic tasks. WebQuests have at computers will have something to of students dutifully produced reports also been created based on a journal- read. These are compromises, though, with titles such as “Manitoba: Land istic approach in which learners take and don’t fully exploit the medium. A of the Crocus Bird” and forgot every on a persona and create a news account WebQuest that’s fully flexing the model word of it within weeks. In freshly or simulated diary as if they were is one that could not be accomplished wired classrooms today, the first im- present at a particular time and place. easily on paper. In We Were There, for example, stu- pulse of many teachers is to treat the People. What qualities are unique to dents portray delegates to the U.S. Web as an extension of the school li- the Internet? First, recognize that the Constitutional Convention appearing brary and to assign the same kind of Internet isn’t just a network of comput- on a talk show. research report. Typically, the thinking ers; it’s also a network of people. In ad- In Witchcraft or Witchhunt, stu- that goes into this kind of activity is dition to selecting interesting and ap- dents create two diaries in parallel: one simply a matter of paraphrasing and propriate Web pages for your students portraying an accused witch, the other summarizing, even if the final report to read, line up humans with expertise ® ® an accused Communist. ends up as a Microsoft PowerPoint to share. There are ask-an-expert sites presentation. The loftier reaches of the Persuasion amid controversy. Another for many fields of study. You might also brain go unused. approach is to look for authentic con- use a parent volunteer. Busy parents Taking your learners to task. How can troversies in the world as a vehicle might be willing to serve as mentors we do better than that? The key ele- around which to organize the study of about a topic for a week or two by ment of a great WebQuest is a great a topic. In A Forest Forever, students e-mail. Children in other classrooms task. It’s all about what we ask learners look at the contending uses for national can also serve as learning partners and sources of information. The ePALS to do with information. Over the past forests. By taking on the perspectives of site is an excellent way to connect with six years, creative teachers have devel- forest rangers, timber workers, off-road other schools. By creatively selecting oped tasks that go well beyond retelling vehicle enthusiasts, and Sierra Club and recruiting, you can bring other and engage their students in problem members and then crafting a persuasive message communicating that point of useful people into your lesson with solving, creativity, design, and judg- view, students learn to see things a simple e-mail link. ment. Find a list of these task types and through multiple lenses. examples on the WebQuest Taskonomy Conversation. Another unique quality page. The page has proven useful in of the Internet is the fact that conversa- helping others see alternative ways to tions can be captured and used as raw frame what they ask of their students. material for learning. The act of writing down one’s thoughts helps clarify them USE THE MEDIUM Design. The topic of Canada, for and opens them up to being refined example, was treated as a design task U and amended by others. You can add in the Design a Canadian Vacation a page to your WebQuest that allows WebQuest. The task given to students students to post their opinions and was to create an itinerary through These are just a few of the possible findings, and invite others outside your Canada that would satisfy a given fam- ways in which tasks can be designed to classroom to participate as well. The ily of four, each of whom was interested elicit higher-level thinking (and motiva- QuickTopic site allows you to add an in different things. Working in teams, tional energy). A great WebQuest goes interactive forum to any Web page in students research possible destinations beyond retelling. a matter of seconds. The pedagogical structure of a Web- and learn to compromise to fit it all Selective glitz. The Web is becoming a Quest is not limited to the use of the into a reasonable trip. One can imagine multimedia environment. In the next that the reports presented by each team Web. One can imagine a “BookQuest” decade, the Web will begin to look less would engage the rest of the class as in which a compelling problem or like a slick magazine and more like tele- well, because each vacation designed question is presented and the solution vision. Though it’s critically important would represent a different set of trade- is created by dividing up and processing to avoid distracting your learners with offs and discoveries. Not only is it likely the information in a variety of books dazzle and noise that serves no instruc- that students would retain more about scattered around the classroom. Teach- tional purpose, it’s also important to Canada, but they also get a taste of the ers with only one computer sometimes take advantage of audio, video, and im- give and take that their parents go compensate by printing out selected ages on the Web when appropriate. through in similar circumstances. Web pages so that students not seated FOCUS: continued on page 58. Copyright © 2001, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.2777 (Int'l), [email protected], www.iste.org. All rights reserved. May 2001 Learning & Leading with Technology 9 Feature FOCUS: continued from page 9. Transformation. WebQuests ask Witchcraft or Witchhunt: www. The FindSounds site lets you search learners to transform what they read teachtheteachers.org/projects/DJacobs/index.htm for sounds using keywords such as into some new form. Because this Search Tools: trolley, wolf, or eagle. The addition of might not have been commonly experi- AltaVista: www.altavista.com a Webcam view associated with your enced by learners in their earlier educa- Dogpile: www.dogpile.com Google: www.google.com lesson (e.g., a street scene in London, tion, they might benefit by explicit help Internet Movie Database: www.imdb.com a live view of a dolphin tank) can on such processes as comparing and Northern Light: www.northernlight.com also add a great deal of interest. The contrasting, finding patterns among Thomas: Legislative Information on the Earthcam site will help you find a number of similar objects of study, Internet: http://thomas.loc.gov TV Episode Guide: http://epguides. Webcam views for almost any topic. brainstorming, inductive reasoning, master.com/texis/master/search/mysite.html? and decision making. Yahoo!: www.yahoo.com Production. WebQuests commonly re- Scaffolding Tools: quire students to create things they’ve Reception: http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/ SCAFFOLD never created before. The production staffdev/patterns2000/reception.html HIGH EXPECTATIONS Transformation: http://projects.edtech.sandi. S aspects of the task can be scaffolded net/staffdev/patterns2000/transformation.html by providing students with templates, Production: http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/ prompted writing guides, and multi- staffdev/patterns2000/production.html media elements and structures. By A great WebQuest asks students to do Other Web Sites: doing part of the work for students, American Memory Collection: http:// things they might not ordinarily be ex- we allow them to go beyond what memory.loc.gov/ammem/mdbquery.html pected to do. If you’ve seen inner-city they would be able to do alone. Over Backflip (bookmark server): www.backflip.com high school students re-enacting the Earthcam: www.earthcam.com time, we hope, they internalize the Amistad Trial or hammering out a ePALS: www.epals.com structures we provide until they can common position on coral-reef protec- FindSounds: www.findsounds.com work autonomously. Process Guides page: http://projects.edtech. tion legislation, you know that learners sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/processguides/index.htm can amaze us when they’re given the QuickTopic: www.quicktopic.com right support. Scaffolding is a tempo- Conclusion rary structure used to help learners The WebQuest model continues to References act more skilled than they really are. evolve. Over time, the number of high- Bergman, M. K. (2000). The deep Web: Surfac- A great WebQuest builds scaffolding quality WebQuests available will in- ing hidden value. BrightPlanet.Com [Online]. crease. By following the five FOCUS Available: www.completeplanet.com/Tutorials/ into the process as needed so that the DeepWeb/index.asp. bar of what students can produce can principles, new WebQuest creators can Dodge, B. J. (1995) Some thoughts about be raised. take advantage of what we’ve learned as WebQuests [Online]. Available: http://edWeb. Three types of scaffolding are in a a community and give the next genera- sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about_Webquests.html. tion of teachers a better place to start. Dodge, B. J. (2000, June). Thinking visually WebQuest (Dodge, 2000): reception, with WebQuests [Online]. Presentation at the transformation, and production. (See National Educational Computing Conference, Scaffolding Tools in Resources on this Resources Atlanta, GA. Available: http://edWeb.sdsu.edu/ page for specific examples of scaffold- Bernie Dodge’s WebQuest pages: Webquest/tv/. Seven Steps Toward Better Searching: Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, R. T. (2000) ing tools.) http://edWeb.sdsu.edu/Webquest/searching/ Cooperative learning [Online]. Available: www.clcrc.com/pages/cl.html. Reception. The Web allows us to put sevensteps.html Specialized Search Engines and Directories students in touch with resources that page: http://edWeb.sdsu.edu/Webquest/search- Bernie Dodge, PhD (bdodge@ they might not have seen before. If ing/specialized.html mail.sdsu.edu), is a professor of learners are not fully prepared to extract Taskonomy page: http://edWeb.sdsu.edu/ educational technology at San information from that resource, then Webquest/taskonomy.html Diego State University. He everything else in the lesson will be WebQuest site: http://edWeb.sdsu.edu/ focuses on the design, imple- Webquest mentation, and evaluation of based on shaky ground. A reception computer-based learning envi- scaffold provides guidance in learning Others’ WebQuest pages: ronments and teaches a variety of courses on that from a given resource and retaining A Forest Forever: www.teachtheteachers.org/ theme. Thanks to a new federal PT3 grant, he’ll be what was learned. Examples of recep- projects/Mbergey/index.htm spending the next three years developing a new ap- Design a Canadian Vacation: www.cesa8. proach to preservice teacher education in a project tion scaffolds include observation guides, k12.wi.us/it/Webquests/canada/index.html called “Learning Through Cyber-Apprenticeship.” tips on how to conduct interviews, and We Were There: http://babylon.k12.ny.us/ For more, visit: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ online glossaries and dictionaries. usconstitution bdodge/bdodge.html. Copyright © 2001, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 541.302.2777 (Int'l), 1058 Learning & Leading with Technology Volume 28 Number 8 [email protected], www.iste.org. All rights reserved.