Webquest

According to Blake "The web pages exist to provide content stimulation and a means for further inquiry."

Here is my blog about a particular [|webquest]

I viewed many webquests and found that most of them were organized like a traditional lesson where the student read the material and answered the comprehension questions. The lessons were nicely illustrated with graphics and had links to further information, but in general I found that because there was no use of the principles of backward design, such as the use of essential questions. They were lacking in a focus on concepts. Most of these lessons I viewed, including the one discussed on my link above, do not offer a clear advantage for the use of technology for the lesson.

What I would look for in a webquest: 1. Lessons that require student thinking. 2. Lessons that promote multimodal digital literacy: reading from a text, using hyperlinks, using internet searches, etc. 3. Lessons that afford a greater access to the target language and culture than one good book would afford. 4. A lesson that capitalizes on and validates student home computer use and focuses this use toward an academic task, such as brainstorming around a concept on Twitter or a collaborative writing assignment on GoogleDocs. This kind of activities allow the students to scaffold each other's growing understanding around a concept in the foreign language.