Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Talk to Me
Webquests are pretty cool. Now to find one that I like or create my own. I think they have the potential to be creative and facilitate group work so I am most definitely on board. However, most of the ones I have seen seem to miss the boat somewhere. I think there are more meaningful ways to ask students to collaborate which ask students to really dialogue about their thoughts and feelings or ideas. Most of the group work in the Webquests I reviewed did not seem to want students to really reconnect and discuss the information they had gathered in their research. I think giving students opportunities to hear each other think is so important and I think overall most teachers still do not know how to facilitate this time in their classrooms. I want to look for good tactics to generate sharing ideas in the classroom. Webquests are a good use of technology and I hope to create some fun Webquests in the future.
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You make some great points and valid observations about WQ. We will discuss in class some ways to create WQ and similar inquiry web-based activities that can accomplish the balance of collaboration and good use of class time.
ReplyDeleteI think unless you just happen to find a WebQuest that perfectly suits your purposes, you've gotta make your own. Or--at least find one and modify it to fit your students and your objective.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about students working together today. I was thinking about how conceptions of originality and ownership have changed since Shakespeare's time, and I wondered what a classroom built on collaboration would look like (or if it's even legal or possible). Can we really commit to being a community of learners if we don't make full room for collaboration in the classroom?