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Webquests are guided
inquiry-oriented activities in which some or all of the information that
learners interact with comes from resources found on the Internet. Webquests
are often supplemented with other media such as print material, cd roms
or videos. Typically, there are two kinds of Webquests - short term and
long term.
The instructional goal of a short term Webquest is knowledge acquisition
and integration. At the end of a short term Webquest, a learner will have
grappled with a significant amount of new information and made sense of
it. A short-term Webquest is designed to be completed in one to three class
periods, or can be done semi-independently at home.
The instructional goal of a longer term Webquest consists of extending and
refining knowledge. After completing a longer term Webquest, a learner would
have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and
demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that
others can respond to, on-line or off-line. A longer term Webquest will
typically take between one week and a month in a classroom setting. Most
of the Jacob Lawrence Webquests on this website are long-term.
Webquests of either short or long duration are deliberately designed to
make the best use of a learner's time. There is questionable educational
benefit in having learners surfing the net without a clear task in mind,
and most schools must ration student's access time on the computer. To achieve
the efficiency of a learner's time spent on the computer, and the clarity
of purpose, Webquests usually contain the following six elements: Introduction,
Task, Process, Resources, Evaluation, and Conclusion. |