Introduction |
The
focus of this workshop is creation of your own WebQuest.
Option: Try the HabitatQuest, A Teacher WebQuest to Create a Student WebQuest on Certifiying the School Yard as a Wildlife Habitat |
Task |
Your
product will be a WebQuest (or at least a draft) that includes
the introduction, task, process, evaluation, and conclusion.
You will select Web resources that your students will use.
You will relate content to standards. You will scaffold learning
by designing a process that leads students to higher order
thinking. |
Process |
Decide
whether you want to create your WebQuest as a word processing
document, using Word, or as a Web page, using DreamWeaver (or
any web editor). |
Use Word |
The
draft of this workshop was created in Microsoft Word as a word
processing document and saved as .rtf (rich text format) and
as .pdf (portable document format). Go to the Sample
files on the main workshop page.
You will see a document to download in .rtf or .pdf format.
When you download that document to your computer, you will
have this content as a word processing document (.rtf) or an
Acrobat Reader document (.pdf) and the links will be “hot,” working
links.
To use a .pdf or .rtf WebQuest in the classroom, just load the
document onto each student computer or store it on the netword
for students to download. |
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Rich
Text Format documents can be opened by a variety of word
processors and can be edited by the user just like any other
word processing document. On the desktop, links will be “hot,” and
clicking will open a web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer)
and take the user directly to the web address (url).
To make the .rtf version from Word, use
File > Save As and choose Format > Rich Text Format.
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Adobe
Acrobat Reader opens PDF documents. PDF documents retain the
original formatting but cannot usually be edited by the user.
On the desktop, links will be “hot,” and clicking
will open a web browser and take the user directly to the web
address (url).
To make the .pdf version from Word, use
File > Print > Save as PDF.
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or
a Web editor |
This
workshop was also created as a Web
page.
- Word
was used for the draft. Then a DreamWeaver page was created.
The text from the Word document was copied and pasted into
the DreamWeaver page.
- A
WebQuest could be created directly in any web editor (such
as DreamWeaver).
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Not
recommended: Word has the option to Save as a Web Page.
This method works but creates messy html code. Sooner or
later you might have to clean up that code. As an experiment,
a draft of this document was converted to web pages using
two different methods:
- Created
in Word and Saved as a Web Page, resulted in 1580
lines of code. See
this example.
- Created
in Word, Copied and Pasted
into a DreamWeaver document made from a template, resulted
in 493 lines of code including the menus and graphics in
the template. See this example.
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Create
your WebQuest using whichever software you wish. Focus on the
content of the WebQuest during this workshop. You might choose
to create your draft today in Word and use that content later
when you construct your Web page. |
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It
is important to complete the WebQuest development process
today, even if you do substantial editing and revising
later. Design and write the following parts of your WebQuest:
- Introduction
- Task
- Process
- Evaluation
- Conclusion
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Use
these resources as needed to help you with your development:
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Evaluation |
Evaluate
your WebQuest using the Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestrubric.html
Ask a colleague to peer review
your product.
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Conclusion |
At
this point, you have learned the format and advantages
of using a WebQuest for inquiry units of study that incorporate
several content areas, focus on local standards, differentiate
instruction, and scaffold learning to higher order thinking
skills. You have written the introduction, task, process,
evaluation, and conclusion for your own WebQuest. You have
selected the Web resources that your students will use
so they will focus on using the resources rather than finding
them. You have structured the task and process to lead
students to higher order thinking, processing information
to create knowledge and demonstrating understanding by
producing a product.
No doubt, as this day ends, you feel that you are just beginning. You will want
to continue working on your WebQuest. Searching for resources and refining the
list of Web sites that you want your students to use is addictive and time consuming.
Your WebQuest creation process, like any writing project, is recursive. That
is, the more you reflect and edit, the better your product becomes.
When you
are satisfied with your WebQuest, submit it to the WebQuest Portal at http://webquest.org/wqdb/editwq.php.
Warning: You probably cannot do just one! As you develop your first WebQuest
and think about the possibilities for the other units that you teach, you may
feel the need to create more WebQuests. The good news is that the resources used
in this workshop continue to be available to you. |
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