Week 6 - Webquest                      http://questgarden.com/147/16/5/120805080920/

Webquest was the theme of the week.  I read and found out quite a bit about the site. Webquest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. The internet, which is interactive focal-point of the lessons, is interactive and accessible to a great deal of people at once. It has the ability to provide endless amounts of information that can be used to motivate students to conduct investigations on any given topic. As an interactive tool for learning, teachers can use the Internet to stimulate creative thought and guide students to develop critical thinking in their "quest" for knowledge. WebQuests are a great way of introducing students to a variety of points of view, and help encourage critical analysis of both the point of view and the website that holds up that point of view.  Webquest also allows the teacher to clearly state and outline state and national standards.  Very useful educational tool!

However, when I sign-up to use Webquest, I had some problems. First I had issues registering. I had to reload the page 3 times. After I finally was a registered client, I started to get to work. The template was easy to read, but I had problems right from the start. The overall design only displayed 26 topics. I had to read around the website, to understand that the design only has these 26 templates. I finally choose one and continued on. As far as myself, I only struggled in one other area: clip art. I couldn’t place a picture in my Webquest that I wanted. If I picked the picture I wanted, the format was wrong. It wouldn’t fit. This may not be a Webquest problem, it may just be me; but I have used many sites where I have to upload pictures. I felt pretty confident, but I couldn’t do it.

Problems that I heard others have included time. WebQuests can take a considerable amount of time to develop, and teachers may not have the skills needed to create the required web pages. The news from the web also questions the authenticity of the information. People can write anything they want, so validity could be in question.

All in all, I think Webquest is loaded with a wealth of educational information that I can use for my students in the classroom. The cross-over from lesson planning along with technology, makes Webquest a 21^st century technology.