webquest reviews

As a future media specialist, I chose to look at three technology webquests from the Bernie Dodge webquest site. They were so interesting! I wish I had done projects like this in school. Here are the three that I looked at:

"States for a Change"
http://www.nhcs.k12.nc.us/williams/quarterwebquest/index.html
This webquest is for a fifth grade social studies unit. Students work in small groups to create a quarter design for their 'home' state. Before submitting their design to the teacher, the students must research the state quarter program and their state to determine what they should include in their design.
One thing that I liked about this webquest is that it includes both group and individual tasks. This helps keep the groups on track and ensures that each student contributes to the end result. I was not very impressed with the rubric, though. The descriptions of what constitutes each score is vague. Also, the points range from 10 for a 'beginning' score to 50 for 'exemplary.' That's a big range! There has to be a more descriptive way to divide up 150 points so students know exactly what is required of them. Fifth graders would probably need more guidance than this rubric provides.

"Jurassic Park Information Literacy"
http://fayette.k12.in.us/~cbeard/jp/webquest.html
I just taught a lesson on information literacyto ninth graders over spring break, so I was very interested to see this website. One thing I liked about this webquest is that it was part of a whole unit on Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. It complements the book quite well and serves as a nice final project. In Child in the Classroom we learned about the importance of creating authentic learning tasks, and this definitely qualifies as an authentic learning task. Students are asked to evaluate specific websites and then find quality sites using search engines. Although the site had some dead links (and some that were just plain outdated), it was a very creative and well thought-out project.
As the author states in her conclusion, "In Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton reminds readers that knowledge and judgment are not the same thing, and that gaining knowledge without also improving judgment can be very dangerous. During this webquest you have developed your ability to judge information on a Web site." I like the way she related the project to the book's message. It's a great way to wrap up the unit and remind students why they did the project. I wish I had found this sooner! I think it would have worked well with the ninth graders I taught over break.

"Buying Your First Car"
http://www.otsego.k12.oh.us/bernthisel/carshoppingwebquest.htm
This was a really neat webquest. It was created for 9th and 10th grade computer applications students, so it was more high-tech than the others that I looked at. Students use various computer programs to research and finance buying their first car (Publisher, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint).
This webquest is an authentic learning assessment that students would love to do. At 15 and 16, most kids can't wait to get their license! This webquest harnesses that enthusiasm and gets kids to see how expensive cars really are. They have to consider insurance costs and how many hours they would have to work to pay for their dream car. While it seems like a lot of different components and a lot of hoops for the kids to jump through, each part of the project is interesting. (For example, creating a resume to get a job so you can pay for a car is important, but does this all have to be one project? Couldn't the webquest be split into different parts, so kids find a job first, then think about buying a car?)
Even though this webquest seems a little too far-reaching in its scope, I think high school students would enjoy working on this project and would learn a lot!