Currently, the Internet has a strong influence on the development of the younger generation. Therefore, the introduction of information technology into the learning process becomes relevant. Using the resources of the global network allows us to diversify the educational process and make it more modern and entertaining for young people. Also, the use of the Internet in lessons allows educational institutions to keep up to date and be on the same wavelength as students.
One of the most effective innovative technologies is web quests. This is a fairly new phenomenon for our education system, but has already managed to establish itself well.
Definition
From English to Russian, a “webquest” literally translates as an “Internet quiz”. However, the English version became the most popular.
A web quest is a combination of a task containing a problem and a kind of role-playing game. To solve this problem, students need to independently search for materials on the World Wide Web.
An educational web-quest is a page on the Internet on which a detailed plan for completing a task for participants is painted. Thanks to quests, it becomes possible to most effectively combine the global network and academic disciplines. Web quests can be dedicated to one topic, one subject, but can also cover several disciplines and be cross-subject. It is believed that the latter are more productive because they allow knowledge from one area to be applied in other areas.
During the passage of web quests, students can work both individually and in groups. Such tasks differ in that the information for work is scattered on many sites, therefore, students need to do a rather big job to cope with the task.
After completing the quest, students have the opportunity to publish the results of their work on websites on the Internet.
The technology of web quests is that the teacher selects tasks on the Internet, compiles his tasks and publishes them on a particular site in the quest format. Then the students follow the given order in the assignment, and the results are drawn up on a separate web page or in the form of project work, printing the results or telling them verbally.
The results of the work can be presented not only in the form of a web page or website. It is also possible to submit a report on the results of a web quest using Powerpoint in the form of a presentation. Working with such presentations is quite easy and will not be difficult, even for younger students.
The founder of the online quiz is American professor Bernie Dodge, who coined the term in 1995. He was engaged in the introduction of IT-technologies in the educational process.
This technology quickly became popular in the USA and Europe, being fond of American and European teachers.
Web quests are considered to be a very effective teaching method, since they force students to do research work and independently find answers to solve problems.
This is a kind of project, working on which the student collects the necessary information, analyzes it, organizes it and prepares to defend it before his classmates and teacher.
Such project training helps students consolidate the material they have learned in the classroom and get acquainted with research activities that will be useful to them in the future, while studying at the university when writing term papers and dissertations.
Types and formats
In practice, there are various types of web quests. For example, they vary in duration. Some quests are completed in a short time, while others require a longer lead time. Short ones are carried out in several classes and are intended to consolidate the material and improve knowledge in a particular area. Long ones can be completed within six months or the whole school year and are created to obtain more in-depth knowledge of the subject.
Web quests can be made in various formats. For instance:
- A retelling of the material found in the form of a presentation or creative work, for example, a drawn poster. This is the easiest kind of web quest.
- Drawing up your own project based on the materials studied.
- The study of various aspects of personality.
- Researching various sources and writing your work on the basis of the data studied, for example, studying paintings by famous authors and creating your own virtual exhibition.
- Students' creative work (poem, song, video clip, etc.).
- Systematization of the materials studied.
- Drawing conclusions in the form of a riddle, rebus or even a detective story.
- Making a decision on the problem under consideration.
- Argumentation of the selected point of view on the problem.
- Presentation of information in the form of a journalistic investigation.
- Conviction of the correctness of his opinion.
- The study of relevant research in various fields of science.
What is a web quest?
Let's look at the components of such a task:
- Introduction It voiced the roles of the participants and the overall plan of the quest.
- Directly task. Usually this is some interesting task that causes a desire to immediately get to work. This block also contains questions for study, poses a problem and determines a position that requires protection. In addition, it indicates the result that should be obtained from the participants.
- List of resources to study. It can be both electronic and paper sources, links to sites on the Internet.
- The list of roles for participants. Students complete assignments based on their roles. Each participant has a plan and tasks.
- Drawing up an action algorithm for each participant.
- Description of the criteria for evaluating the passage of a web quest.
- Description of the requirements for the results of the quest.
- Conclusion This summarizes the student experience.
Stages
As a rule, a web quest consists of three stages:
- At the initial stage, which is also called the team, participants should familiarize themselves with the topic and its main concepts. Then they disassemble the roles in the team, 1-4 people are assigned to 1 role.
- At the role stage, each team member works individually, according to his role. Work individually does not imply competition within the team, so participants can help each other, share knowledge and experience. Everyone is working on a common result and are interested in the successful completion of the task. Next, the team jointly summarizes and prepares to create a site based on the results of the quest. At this stage, participants are looking for information on their topic on the Internet; working on creating the structure of the future site; collect and modify material for their site.
- At the final stage, collaboration resumes. The teacher helps teams publish their materials on the Internet. Publication of works on the World Wide Web can be an additional motivation for participants, so this step should not be neglected.
Performance Evaluation Criteria
After completing all the stages, a competition is usually held to identify the best work. Among the evaluation criteria are: the correct understanding of the assignment, the truth and correctness of the use of the information found, the consistency of the provision of materials, critical thinking when working on a problem, the reasonedness of approaches to solving it, etc. Not only the teacher, but also the participants themselves can evaluate the results of work by voting or brainstorming.
Since the web quest is a combination of various tasks, then you need to evaluate them comprehensively. For example, web quest creator Bernie Dodge recommends using 4-8 different criteria. He described them in detail in his writings.
Work plan
When creating a web quest, you should adhere to the following plan:
- Decide on the direction and theme of the quest. This can be a quest for a school subject or related to extracurricular activities. Integrated options are also welcome.
- Think about the age category of the participants and whether they have sufficient skills to work on the Internet. If you have young children, then perhaps they will go through the quest with their parents. In this case, you should make sure that the topic of the lesson is interesting to both children and adults.
- Come up with interesting roles for each direction. It is not for nothing that this type of activity is called a "quest"; it is a kind of mystery, game, adventure, but educational in nature. Therefore, the roles should be extraordinary, for example: designers, cooks, journalists, theater critics, investigators and many others. Here you have open space for imagination. The main condition is that these roles can be included in the topic of the assignment. In addition, in one quest, 5-6 roles are enough, not more.
- Write down an action plan for each role. This will be the instruction that students will follow.
- Select criteria for evaluating web quest results. You can take ready-made ones, but be sure to redo them based on your topic and goals.
- The main task of the web quest is to teach students to independently search for materials in the global information network, therefore it is welcome when the children themselves are looking for information. However, the teacher can help them by providing links to sites with the necessary resources.
Web Quest Roles
As already mentioned above, the roles for quests should be selected especially carefully.
For humanitarian subjects, these can be the roles of a historian, philologist, journalist, writer, collector of fairy tales and folk songs, designer, culinary specialist, etc.
For natural science and technical subjects, the roles of mechanic, physicist, chemist, biologist, inventor, natural scientist, etc.
Common to all subjects can serve as the investigator, detective, editor, website designer, webmasters, etc.
There are a lot of examples of web quests. We present indicative tasks for schoolchildren in computer science and foreign language lessons.
Web quest in English lesson
In English lessons, you can conduct a quest to study the life and work of the great poet and playwright W. Shakespeare.
This quest is suitable for middle school students who begin to get acquainted with the works of the famous English poet, as well as for high school students who want to study his work more deeply.
To work on this topic, you can select roles such as:
- journalist (studies the biography of the writer and interprets the events of his life);
- psychologist (analyzes the behavior of the main characters of his most famous works);
- historian (records and analyzes the historical events described by William Shakespeare in his plays);
- editor (responsible for the correct and logical presentation of the material during the creation of the site);
- web master (responsible for creating a site or presentation based on the material collected).
Tasks for this topic can be as follows:
- Explore information on the Internet, according to the roles.
- To get acquainted with the most famous works of the author (or read a brief summary, or excerpts).
- Read some of the author’s most popular sonnets.
- Memorize any sonnet (if this is an English lesson, then in English).
- At the stage of presenting the results, make a presentation and tell the learned poem.
This plan can be used as a ready-made web quest, and you can also modify it and adjust it to your goals.
Informatics web quest
Theme: "Journey into the world of computer science."
This quest is intended for middle school students who will be interested to get acquainted with the history of the emergence of computers and the Internet.
Objectives: development of students' skills of independent search and analysis of the necessary information; development of the ability to compile knowledge from various industries; expansion of knowledge in the field of computer science and ICT; development of communication skills and teamwork.
Mini-groups of 3-5 people take part in the quest.
At the first stage, students get acquainted with the website of the web quest, fill out a questionnaire and register in the system. Then they describe what role the computer and the Internet play in their lives.
At the second stage, the execution of tasks begins directly. For example, students visit a virtual museum to familiarize themselves with scientists who have contributed to the development of computer science.
The next task is to study the history of the creation of computers and computers. To do this, students watch a video and read about various inventions. After studying the information, they fill out a table where they indicate the name of the invention, date and scientist.
The third task will be to get acquainted with the history of the creation of the Internet. To do this, students visit an interactive museum and after studying the material they guess a crossword puzzle. They must solve the crossword keyword and write it out.
The final task is a creative work: either write an essay on the topic "Computer science is the most important school subject", or create a poster on the topic of how computer science knowledge is useful in a future profession.
If you wish, you can add another creative task - the creation of postcards, congratulations on the day of computer science in various graphic editors.
At the final stage, you should ask for feedback. On the site, students can fill out a reflection form with their assessment of the quest and with suggestions for improving it.
Conclusion
So now you know how to use web quest technology in the lessons. With the help of them you will diversify your activities and make them more effective. An example of a computer science web quest should help you understand how to proceed in order to create your own. We gave you only a sample, on the basis of which you can come up with many options for interesting ideas.