Christina WebQuest Extravaganza

Joe Ambrosino, Brian Conway, Minnie HutchisonJoyce Nerlinger, Alyssa Rosenthal

Delaware Instructional Technology ConferenceApril 10, 2002

www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests

The Finished ProductsSave Recordia

http://www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests/recordia/The Great Owl Search

http://www.dcet.k12.de.us/teach/hutch/webquest.htmlCreating Historical Fiction: Civil War Journal

http://www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests/civilwar/Technology Integration

http://www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests/integratetech/

ProcessVolunteers from the district

5 meetings from November to March

Worked with Pat Sine from UD through in-person and virtual consultinghttp://www.udel.edu/sine/christina/index.html

Parts of a WebQuest IntroductionTaskProcess & ResourcesEvaluationConclusion

TaskMost important part of a WebQuest

Should be stated in a single sentence

Must require higher order thinking

Great examples: http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/tasksimap/

Our Tasks From the point of view of a participant in the events of  the

Civil War (1861-1865),  create a journal with five entries that capture what you witnessed during some important event of the Civil War. (Civil War Journal)

Your group must go back in time (on the Internet) to gather information about the culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe to create a journal, a castle model, and a tapestry to complete Cacophony the Wizard’s 4 challenges. (Save Recordia)

Our Tasks Your task is to find an instructional technology integration

activity that supports State Standards and Principles of Best Instructional Practice, to be shared at the end of our session. (Technology Integration)

You are to choose your favorite owl and then sculpt it out of clay.  Your teacher will show you many techniques for working with the clay but not until you can show her that you know the characteristics of a real owl. (Sculpting an Owl)

Process and Resources

What the students will do to accomplish the task

The resources (electronic and traditional) to get the job done

Few enough resources to not overwhelm Enough resources to support all learners

Process and Resources Familiarize yourself with the 13 Principles of Best

Instructional Practice and choose one on which to focus. Familiarize yourself with the Activity Evaluation Chart. Use the resources to find an activity:

that supports your chosen principle.    that aligns with State Standards.    that uses technology, not as an add-on, but as

a tool integral to accomplishing the instructional objective. Use the chart to record your findings. Be prepared to share your findings with the group.

(Technology Integration)

EvaluationRubric-based so that students know what’s

expected of them

Includes ALL elements of the task to be accomplished, especially the standards that are to be achieved

Evaluation

Sample from the Civil War Journal WebQuest

Introduction and ConclusionLeast important parts but easiest to createSets the context coming and going

Introduction and Conclusion Hooray!!!  Your class has been given the honor of creating

realistic owl sculptures to decorate your school.  Before artists can begin to make a sculpture of an animal they have to learn as much as they can about that animal. Therefore you will have to learn about owls before you begin to create a realistic owl sculpture. You will be working with a partner to find out as much as you can about owls but each of you will make your own sculpture. (Sculpting an Owl)

Introduction and Conclusion If you have completed the task of creating an owl sculpture

you have  something that you can treasure all your life.  What makes it more special is that you worked the way artists do.  You researched your subject (an owl), learned all about it and really looked at its characteristics. You also learned how to See like an Artist.  You looked for the geometric shapes that make up the owl. 

You can do the same thing whenever you look at something to draw, paint, or sculpt.  Always look for the basic shapes first, draw them, then add the details.(Sculpting an Owl)

Summing Up

Where We Fell Short

Difficult to change gears from the “lesson-planning” and activity mode to WebQuest mode

Maintaining the commitment as the challenges grew (lost 3 along the way)

Where We Were ChallengedMatching WebQuest aims to Delaware

standards and curriculum demands

Maintaining a balance between learning the skills of creating and publishing a WebQuest and the skills of writing a quality WebQuest

Where We SucceededReflecting on the process and presenting it

to colleagues at our districtwide inservice

Using an immersion process to develop a district corps of experts

Our AdviceWriting WebQuests is hard but worth the

effort if you can invest the time

There are lots of good and bad WebQuests out there. Carefully evaluate before you try one in the classroom.http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquestrubric.html

You can find us on the web at www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests.