What are WebQuests? What are WebQuests useful for? What's the WebQuest formula? What does "Introduction" consists of? What does "Task" consists of? What does "Process" consists of? What does "Resources" consists of? What does "Evaluation" consists of?

1. WEBQUESTS.
Elizabeth Martínez

2. What’s aWebQuest?
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented
online tool for learning, it is a
classroom-based lesson in which most
or all of the information that students
explore and evaluate comes from the
WorldWideWeb.

3. Characteristics of aWebQuest:
• can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-
long unit;
• usually (though not always) involve group work, with division of
labor among students who take on specific roles or perspectives;
• are built around resources that are preselected by the teacher.
• Students spend their time USING information, not LOOKING for
it.
• Should be age apropiate

4. WhyWebQuests?
• They are an easy way for teachers to begin to incorporate the
Internet into the language classroom.
• Group activities
• They encourage critical thinking skills, including: comparing,
classifying, inducing, deducing, analyzing errors, constructing
support, abstraction, analyzing perspectives, etc. Learners are
not able to simply regurgitate information they find, but are
guided towards a transformation of that information in order to
achieve a given task.

5. WEBQUEST
FORMULA
Creating WebQuests is easier than you might think! Many sites are available to walk
you through the process. One of the most thorough is Bernie Dodge's WebQuest
Page. According to Dodge, the six building blocks of aWebQuest are:

6. INTRODUCTION
The Introduction orients students and captures their interest. Which, following the
formula, it's the tabWE'RE in!
In the Introduction, you have to brainstorm the topic and start with the deisgn for
your webquest.
Topics can be:
• Informative
• Classroom Activities
• Fun games for learning

7. TASKS
Acording to Bernie Dodge, the task is the single most important part of a
WebQuest. He says it provides a goal and focus for students.
Characteristics of a taks: Do-able, Engaging, Elicits active thinking,
Comprehensive.
Dodge created the WebQuestTask taxonomy, which describes formats and
suggests ways to optimize WebQuests, he also says that in a WebQuest you are
more likely to combine elements of one or more of these tasks:
**Check links on the ResourcesTAB for the full taskonomy.

8. PROCESS
The Process explains strategies students should use to
complete the task.
In this section, you'll include the roles students will
assume and the steps they'll follow to complete the
activity.

9. RESOURCES
Identify the online resources available on your
topic by brainstorming a list of related words and
using the list to search for relevant sites. As you
search, create a hotlist of current, accurate, and
age-appropriate sites that will engage your
students' interest.

10. EVALUATION
Traditional evaluation techniques are not the
best means for evaluating the results of
WebQuests, since all students may not learn
the same content. Individual evaluation
rubrics should be developed that follow
curriculum objectives and are easy for
students to understand.
**Check links on the ResourcesTAB for a Rubric.