Greetings,
In terms of a lesson plan resource, WebQuest and QuestGarden are an awesome tool. Teachers and parents alike have *free* access to hundreds of lesson plans that can be modified to suit the needs of their students and children. Even though I’m a future classroom teacher, I can’t help but think of the implications this resource could mean for homeschooling. However, the operating system and index of Quests could use a revamp to fit in with the rest of the current tech and digital classroom tools. Weeding through the Quests using QuestGarden, it was difficult to find material and subjects I was looking for. Just like in a lot of web indexes, you have to weed through a lot of bad to get to the good. I think it would also benefit from some sort of chat function so that teachers could discover Quests and debate the merits in real time to provide and receive constructive feedback from comparable professionals.
In my own experience creating a WebQuest, I felt the template served as a great starting point, especially for newcomers. It was easy to work with and fill in. Although, I think Christi and I both were frustrated a few times with Google Docs. It would bug out on us, particularly with formating. In the future, I would look into using a different platform to fill in the template. One of the pro’s, however, was the ability to work on our document simultaneously in real time. That’s something Word can’t do.
During class, I enjoyed seeing the work of other teams. In one instance, a fellow group put together a WebQuest that was very similar to ours in process but featured a different time in history. It was beneficial to see what tricks other groups used to make their WebQuest stand out. If we gave ourselves more time, I think ours could have been a little bit better visually. The majority of our feedback was very positive and the suggestions we received were good ideas, including attaching a group project since our Quest was a very solo endeavor.
I would definitely consider using WebQuest when creating curriculum in the future. It operates as a quality idea file to look back to when you need something different. I like to consider WebQuest as an early version of a Professional Learning Network for educators.
The ISTE Standards I see the most in developing and using WebQuest include:
I. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
II. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Jenny