WebQuests in the Classroom

I have used WebQuests before with success in my undergraduate education classes. One of our assignments was to complete a WebQuest that was designed for high school history students. This particular WebQuest was a preview to a government research paper. Students had to walk through each web page that was presented, and decide whether it was an official and accurate web page or a hoax. At first glance, some of them were difficult to tell, especially since the web address was only a character or two off from the legitimate website. The purpose of this WebQuest was to get students acclimated to researching political issues online, so that when the time came for them to do independent research they would (hopefully) be able to recognize illegitimate websites.

I think WebQuests can be a powerful and engaging tool in the classroom, if implemented appropriately. In order to be beneficial, the teacher must spend A LOT of time preparing the WebQuest for students, in particular with obtaining proper websites for students to explore. It is a very time consuming task for teachers, but I think that the hard work pays off. WebQuests allow students to become engaged in curriculum material that they may find dull or boring otherwise. They allow for collaborative learning, shared responsibility, and teamwork, which are all positives in the classroom. During a WebQuest, students have to become experts on a certain topic and share this information with their group. They know their teammates are counting on them to contribute to the completion of the final task.WebQuests increase student motivation, and therefore students are likely to put forth more effort and work to the best of their abilities on the task; in doing so, they will learn more than they would from a simple lecture or PowerPoint! Many WebQuest tasks are also designed to address problems or issues that exist in the real world, which makes the task authentic. In WebQuests, students use real, timely resources instead of dated textbooks and materials that are only presented from one point of view. They prompt higher-level thinking and pose questions that require more from students than just spitting back information. They provide authentic, engaging, and worthwhile activities that students will truly benefit and learn from.