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Introducing...

After School Online

Title of Session: WebQuests to Develop Analytical Thinking
Moderator: Bernie Dodge
Title of File: 20070221webquests
Date: February 21, 2007
Room: After School Online

BJB2: Welcome, everyone, to today's SPECIAL discussion with Bernie Dodge.

[Introductions]

BJB2 hands the virtual floor over to the esteemed Dr. Dodge!

BernieD: Thanks, BJ. It's been a few months since I've been here and it's good to be back. I spent a disappointing hour this morning looking at some recently created WebQuests (created in QuestGarden) and was sad to see that even with a lot of guidance, it's possible to create terrible WebQuests!

BJB2: I think Bernie needs to get back to TI and remind people more often of what a good WQ is!

BernieD: Two were just research reports: go read these pages and make a PowerPoint presentation. Three were just worksheets: Pick a state and tell us where you'd go and how many miles that would be. So... I'd like to point out a few pretty good ones to outweigh the bad.

BernieD: The defining characteristic of the good ones is that they focus on higher level thinking skills. Tonight I thought I'd focus on Analysis. One of the top three Bloom's taxonomy flavors. Before I go on, though, let me see if there are questions in general about WebQuests?

JoseMH: I am new to WebQuests. Would you give a quick overview?

BernieD: That's a lot of typing, Jose. After we're done here, just poke around on http://webquest.sdsu.edu.

BJB2: Jose, you can also read past transcripts with Bernie at www.tappedin.org/transcripts.

BirgitB: Yes, I have one. It seems that most WebQuests focus on lower grades. Are there some good ones for high school?

BernieD: There are a lot for younger kids, but the ones that impress me most are for middle and high school.
Let's take a look at one: http://questgarden.com/31/14/9/060722075111/index.htm.
Go take a look at that for a couple of minutes and then we'll talk about it.

BernieD: So... what do we think about it?

BJB2: How cool, Bernie!

MartinC: Okay, what's cool?

VickiLMGst22: Lots of work went into this one.

BernieD: Visually cool. You can always tell when someone has an art background.

BirgitB: This took a lot of work

BernieD: What I like about it is the scaffolding included.

BirgitB: And it looks worth doing

BernieD: Students aren't just led to a load of art links and told to write something about them. Instead there's a detailed process that they follow. One that maps nicely onto the kinds of analysis done at a much higher level.

VickiLMGst22: Yippee, someone who knows how to list all the standards too. I have lots of trouble with my students not wanting to take the time to list more than one or two standards.

BernieD: Make their grade depend on it, I guess.

BernieD: Let's contrast that one with another: http://questgarden.com/39/71/4/061030183239/index.htm. Compare this to the previous one. What's different?

BirgitB: This seems a lot simpler.

BJB2: This one isn't nearly so interesting....just compare and contrast.

BodieF: The task and process sections seemed to be doing the same thing.

VickiLMGst22: The text is pretty cumbersome for 6th grade.

BirgitB: Actually, I don't see why someone would go to the trouble of creating the web site when a simple worksheet would probably do just fine.

BernieD: So what would we do to improve it... How WOULD you compare two versions of a fairy tale?

BodieF: I thought the quest gave too much background information. The students should be searching for more themselves.

BernieD: Interesting point, Bodie, with which I respectfully disagree. There's plenty of opportunity for kids to practice their mad searching skills. But in a WebQuest, the idea is to focus on USING information, not looking for it.

BernieD: So in this case, I think I'd actually provide a few more links.

BJB2: WHY did the story change over the years?

BernieD: Something about how to analyze a story, maybe?

VickiLMGst22: What world events happened to change the content.

BernieD: I'd also provide some more guidance on what to look for. And I think I'd generalize it by having them do it again with guidance to another tale.

BirgitB: For 8th grade boys, you might work on the sinister angle a bit more.

BernieD: Good idea.

VickiLMGst22: Or even give the boys a more guy-orientated story.

BernieD: Beowulf?

MartinC: Monster trucks would be better than Little Red Riding Hood.

BirgitB: It might also be interesting to compare and contrast Grimm's fairy tales with the Disney versions and to have them look at why they were cleaned up so much.

BernieD: Great idea. I once came home from Russia with a book of Lithuanian fairy tales for my then-young boy. My god, they were grim.

MateenD: so what is the biggest positive to using WebQuests?

BernieD: The biggest positive is that kids can be given a guided experience on an authentic task that requires productive thinking.

LindaU: How about helping students create a real-world, modern-day connection to their own lives?

BernieD: Yup.

MateenD: I've seen a couple online, but I guess I still don't see the overall benefit versus PowerPoint etc.

BirgitB: What do you say to people who claim that there is no time to go into the depth required for a good WebQuest?

BernieD: Well... comparing WebQuests to PowerPoint is a little like comparing airplanes to bananas. PowerPoint is just a medium. It's fundamentally unimportant. Most PowerPoint presentations created by kids are just summaries. When in life does someone just ask you to summarize things?

MateenD: Are there templates?

BernieD sighs.

BernieD: Here's where to find lots of WebQuests: http://webquest.org/search/.

BernieD: So what do you find appealing about this third WebQuest: http://questgarden.com/23/22/0/060516114003/index.htm?

VickiLMGst22: This Quest appears to have all the earmarks listed on the WebQuest site.

MartinC: Very different -- hard to navigate.

BernieD: Probably because each page is longer. Meatier.

MateenD: So WebQuests are useful because you get to go more in depth?

BernieD: Yes. They require it.

BodieF: I like the way the tasks are divided into short and clear chunks. Since this is for teachers, I could see that being easier to complete in several sessions instead of all at once.

BirgitB: Did she write this WebQuest for anyone to use?

BernieD: Generally yes. She checked the box in QuestGarden that says she wants people to use it. In fact, she's given permission for other teachers to modify it to meet their own needs and republish it.

VickiLMGst22: I like the STOP that tells students that it is time to do something so they don't just pass over it.

BernieD: Here's one last one. Pretty grim: http://questgarden.com/22/94/9/060418225459/index.htm.What I like about it is that it doesn't just require using compare-and-contrast as a strategy. It asks them to judge whether that technique can actually be applied in this case.

BernieD: Well... the clock on the wall tells me that it's time to wind this down. Who has some last thoughts to contribute to the common good?

MateenD: Good lesson.

MateenD: I think I can at least get started creating my 1st WebQuest. What is Bernie's web site?

BernieD: Just Google "webquest."

BJB2: Thanks so much, Bernie!