Lernertagebuch von Friederike

To get a first idea what a web quest really is, have a look at "WebQuest für Eilige" (a German website).

The concept of WebQuests has been developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March (1995, San Diego State University). He defines WebQuests as: "an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. Web-Quests are designed to use learner's time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis ans evaluation."

Pupils are meant to use the internet in order to acquire knowlegde on their own by surfing the WWW. In WebQuests, they get clear working structures and questions/tasks according to their level. By this means, the danger of an aimless surfing around the web can be reduced, time ressources are saved and frustrating experiences for the pupils can be avoided.

Susanne Brülls wrote a paper on WebQuests and had some intelligent ideas on "learning with WebQuests" (unfortunately in German...):

"Im Rahmen von WebQuests arbeiten SchülerInnen aktiv an der Aneignung und Aufbereitung von Wissen. Den Lernenden soll kein Faktenwissen übergestülpt werden, sondern ihnen soll auf der Grundlage von authentischen Situationen Gelegenheit geboten werden, Wissen selbst zu konstruieren. Dabei wird davon ausgegangen, dass

• Lernen ein aktiver und konstruktiver Prozess ist. Dazu gehört, dass der Lernende zum Lernen motiviert ist und Interesse an dem hat bzw. entwickelt, was er tut und wie er es tut.
• Lernen ein selbst gesteuerte Prozess ist, bei der der Lerner Steuerungs- und Kontrollfunktion übernimmt.
• Lernen ein interaktiver sozialer Prozess ist.
• Lernen situations- und kontextgebunden ist. Durch die Verwendung realer Kontexte soll der Transfer des anzueignenden Wissen auf andere Themen und Gegenstandsbereiche erleichtert werden.
  

A WebQuest contains the following features:

Introduction: Motivation, sets the stage, provides background information

Task: Something doable & interesting: series of questions, summary to be created, problem to be solved, position to be debated, creative work, something that requires thinking!

Information Resources: Specific, appropriate resources:web documents, experts available via Internet, searchable databases on the net, books and other documents, real objects

Process/Procedures: List of activities: Step-by-step instructions, Timeline

Learning Advice/ Guidance: Describe how to organize info: Guiding questions, directions to complete, checklists, timelines, concept maps, cause-and-effect diagrams, action plan

Evaluation: Assess student work: checklists, rubrics

Conclusion: Bring project to closure: remind learners about what they've learned, encourage learners to extend the experience

Other Elements: Roles to play, group collaboration guidelines, motivating scenario, teacher resources (source)

There are thousands of examples on the internet. Here are some websites to look at:

Connecting Teachers and Students

WebQuests für Englisch

The DaVinciCode WebQuest (don't look at the anwers! :-)

and many, many more...

Today, I'd like to give you some links and comments on learning, learning theories and web based learning.

http://www.funderstanding.com/about_learning.cfm                                                                                                     This website gives you a good (but brief) survey of 12 learning theories. Each explanation is divided up into the sections "definition", "discussion" (including criticisms), "how does the theory impact learning/education" and further "reading".

detailed information on BEHAVIOURISM

detailed information on CONSTRUCTIVISM

detailed information on the COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY (a web quest)

Really good and informative: A clinical review (published in the BMJ, British Medical Journal) on web based learning. Here is an extract from the website:     

What is web based learning?  Web based learning is often called online learning or e-learning because it includes online course content. Discussion forums via email, videoconferencing, and live lectures (videostreaming) are all possible through the web. Web based courses may also provide static pages such as printed course materials. One of the values of using the web to access course materials is that web pages may contain hyperlinks to other parts of the web, thus enabling access to a vast amount of web based information. [more] 

Task: Try to find useful multimedia stuff on http://news.bbc.co.uk and think about using it in class.

Although the TV show "Big Brother" isn't particularly popular anymore, I assume that everybody knows it or has at least heard of it. So in order to introduce the film "Is Big Brother watching too much?" which is about public surveillance, I suggest a brainstorming about the TV show "Big Brother". I'm sure that most of the students will be highly motivated to join the discussion as it is/was something that they watched in their spare time.

After some first ideas are collected (which will certainly deal with the candidates of the show, but that's ok...) I'd ask the pupils whether they would take part in the show themselves or not. Of course, I'd ask them to give reasons for their opinion (collection of comments).

Then I'd show the film to them: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_6610000/newsid_6610300?redirect=6610331.stm&news=1&bbram=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

Partner work: Where and when are we observed and/or controlled in our everyday life? Collect positive and negative aspects of public surveillance (film+own ideas).

Discussion in class: "Is Big Brother watching too much?" (possible inputs: Do you feel observed in your every day life? Do you want to be observed? Do we need public surveillance in our modern society or better said: Are there (moral?) limits to public surveillance?)

P.S.: Is Big Brother watching little Knut too much? *g* http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6600000/newsid_6605700/6605745.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm