PBL and Webquests

This week I focused on a Webquest more, as this is a tool I haven’t used before, so I read the interview of Bernie Dodge, the author of the technique, and went through some Webuest samples at http://www.zunal.com/ For example, I investigated the “Integration of The Technology Into Life” webquest, and found that it involved a lot of preparation: brainstorming charts, process description, evaluation and teacher pages. I understand that once this tool has been introduced to my teaching it will be easier to develop other webquests and engage students in creating some of their own.

The fact that there is no Internet access in my computer lab does not pose any problem, as websites may be saved for off-line use and still provide motivating content and original layout. I’m just a little bit frustrated about the amount of time it may take to produce creative tasks in order to make students do something close to the real world situations. So, I will try to implement this technique to see how it will work in my situation, with my resources, and my students.

Projects of any kind are very appealing to me. Before I even knew that it was a project, I organized my first one. In October 1999 I wanted to celebrate discovering of America with my students. It didn’t have to be Columbus Day, but something to give them a bite of what America is. We realized that the discovery of America brought extermination to the native Americans. So, my students suggested putting Columbus to trial. They used the web to look for facts for and against Columbus and his discovery. Then they distributed parts, and we had the jury as well. So, nobody actually knew whether the court decision would be “Guilty” or “Not guilty”. And even though Columbus was found guilty by the jury, the court decision was to question the justification of pronouncing Columbus Day a National holiday.

Nowadays I would use rubrics to assess the students’ involvement, performance, oral skills, etc., everything involved in the project. Then my assessment was more subjective and not transparent. So, the students didn’t know the requirements for assessment before performance and were not able to improve it. However, the whole experience was very exciting for them, and they actively took part in other innovative activities.