All about WebQuests

This week was my first experience with WebQuests. I had heard about them but had never actually seen one. I had the opportunity to evaluate five WebQuests this week. After evaluating each WebQuests on the criteria of technology, type of questions asked and group work involved, I felt like I had a stronger understanding of what makes a good WebQuest. In my opinion, the most important factor of a good WebQuest is the easiness for kids to use. A WebQuest can have require higher order thinking and be a very original lesson, but without the students being able to easily go from one page to the next and understanding the organization of the website, they will get nothing out of the quest. Overall, I think webquests are a great way to do group work in the classroom. However, I do not think they should be overused. They should be a special activity to keep kids excited about. Also, WebQuests may be difficult to use in certain schools. For example, the school I am at now, does not have class computers. The class has to go to a separate computer lab if computers are needed. Therefore, when I create my WebQuest I will need to either create one that can be done in one period or one that has places to stop and pick up another day.