Web Quest feedback

Web Quest response:

After viewing the web quests, I got very excited to see where technology could really benefit students learning if it is done right. I think how much more exciting social studies and science kinds of projects could be taught through this venue. As a young student, I would have loved to do this kind of quest or research to guide my learning in primary school. It is very inspiring and motivating to see these examples of instructional lessons that are developed in a way that is fun for students to learn how to find information and apply it in many different ways! It's even more exciting to think about the possibilities in sharing webquests with eachother especially when thinking about culturally relevent kinds of webquests that will benefit all the students who live here in rural Alaska. What other kinds of webquests are out there and how do we get access to them as teachers?

Here is my reaction to the webquests that we had to view.

Quilt-quest. Not very exciting to me. boring, unattractive, but good project to get students working collaboratively while searching for information about the 3 different Native American cultures.

Bowhead whale-excellent example of critical pedagogy. I like how the students had to put themselves in each of the roles and learn from that angle or point of view. What an exciting way for students to learn. I especially liked the Real World Action page where students could go to the next level of activism. Very powerful, indeed! I would say this was designed with the altitudinist in mind. Seemed geared more towards the older kids.

Immigrants-quest was layed out very well. I liked the ruberic in which students are able to self-evaluate critically and clearly. I also liked how this led itself to characters that you might find in a Host a Murderer party. I also liked the journal idea, tv host, and creating a costume that fit the role. These are all great ideas that put students in the immigrants shoes and all the challenges that they faced in order to survive. I would lean towards the affiliator on this one.

North Carolina Zoo was filled with web references and seemed like information overload to me. I thought the design could have been better layed out. Don’t get me wrong, though. I immediately thought of Atan’s animal report when reading this webquest. There are great activities to get students learning about the different animals that are found in zoos. This person is definitely a technofile.

Egypt webquest was very kid friendly. I liked the pictures and design. It was appealing and seemed to be written in a manner that students could relate to and understand. The use of missions was clever and creative. I actually felt like I was on a real live search for something real and exciting… each mission was so in debth with critical kinds of questions that helped guide the direction of students learning. This was my favorite one.