On a Quest

Note: This is a very basic webquest based on a more detailed model lesson I developed for the Ohio Department of Education during the development of their Instructional Management System. The ODE's IMS (we technology people live for acronyms) is an excellent resource that provides professionally developed and reviewed lesson and unit plans aligned with Ohio's academic content standards. If you are not already familiar with this great resource, you should visit their site to find information not only on lesson plans, but also information on standards-based education, assessments, programmatic improvement, and other tools (including "OAT Toolkits" for Science and Social Studies).


Course Topic: Transportation Systems

This abbreviated lesson targets the elementary school student learning about the development of transportation technology and its impact on the exploration and settlement of Ohio. This topic could be dry and boring, as it was for me when I studied it in elementary school, but could be much more engaging for students actively involved in performing online research. Elementary eachers new to web quests can use this outline as a quick start guide, but remember that it barely scratches the surface of what a web quest can offer in terms of technology and content integration opportunities.

If you are a Whitehall teacher and would like assistance with the development of a web quest, whether based on this outline or not, please feel free to contact me at extension 5014 to arrange a time that's convenient for you to discuss options.


Instruction Strategies

The lesson should begin as any “offline” classroom lesson with background information, general concepts, and a review of the goals of the lesson. Since this example could be a student’s first experience with a web quest, I would suggest starting with a quick review of how to perform an online search, why the students should not accept every web site as authoritative, and provide a few clues about determining a site’s credibility.

All the elementary schools at Whitehall have media center computer labs with at least 30 workstations, so I would arrange a time with the media specialist when I could take my entire class to the media center so that each student could have his or her own research station. Use the media center's computer/projector/SMARTboard teacher station to introduce your students to two authoritative sites you have selected that provide credible core information and provide the opportunity to point out indicators for the quality of website the students are seeking. Students will later be required to cite information gathered from these two sources, and from four other sources they have found on their own using search engines and/or links from the original two sites, in their research results.

Since one of the factors cited as a barrier to the integration of online research is the fact that it can take longer to deliver a lesson plan, be sure to allow sufficient time for your students to become familiar with the online process. Time constraints also may not allow each student to present his or her research results in class, and there would be a lot of repetition as multiple students covered the same information. To preserve this critical classroom discussion component, you could select students with good results on a few key concepts (possibly 3 - 4, depending on the quality of the research and the number of presentations required to fully cover the core concepts) to present their findings as part of a whole class dialog.

Students could also produce a 1-2 page written report of their findings that includes a list of at least 6 websites consulted in the research (the two teacher provided sites, plus at least 4 discovered by the student).



The “Five Questions”

Coulter, et al. (2000), suggest five key questions that should be considered by teachers planning an online class (a full citation is at the bottom of this post for those who are interested).


1. What is the curriculum-related purpose of the activity?

It is important to remember that the focus of the lesson is the content, not the Internet. Activities should address real learning needs based upon your curricular objectives.

This lesson, as presented, would address the following State Standards (Ohio) and, with only slight expansion, could easily include a range of additional standards.


Standard: Nature of Technology
Benchmark: B. Identify, describe and discuss the core concepts of technology.
Indicator: 3. Cite examples of how tools and machines extend human capabilities (e.g., automobiles are more efficient than walking great distances).

Standard: Technology and Society Interaction
Benchmark: E. Identify development patterns and examine the influence of technology on the world.
Indicator: 1. Classify collected information in order to identify technology development patterns.

Technology and Information Literacy: Designed World
Benchmark A: Develop an understanding of how physical technologies enhance our lives.
Indicator 4: Discuss how modes of transportation have changed over the years in Ohio.

Science: Science and Technology
Benchmark A: Describe how technology affects human life.
Indicator 1: Explain how technology from different areas (e.g., transportation, communication, nutrition, healthcare, agriculture, entertainment and manufacturing) has improved human lives.
Indicator 2: Investigate how technology and inventions change to meet peoples’ needs and wants.



2. Does the Internet enhance the activity?

A frequently offered criterion for using the Internet is the simple question, "Can this be done without the Internet?" For some reviewers, the answer is just as simple: If the Internet is not required, don't use it. Personally, I don't always agree with that because to me there is a lot of "multiple intelligences" flavor to the Internet; a subgroup of your students will learn better precisely because the Internet is involved.

While it is possible to present this lesson without the online component, access Internet resources definitely offers benefits to the students both in terms of the scope and breadth of materials available and in the increased student engagement in the active learning process. Our district’s media centers offer a wide range of materials and students are well served by the media specialist’s materials selection processes, but even the best centers are enhanced by the plethora of information available online, which offers increased and simple access to multimedia (without the “A/V Cart”), current materials, and more. Even the basic problems, such as every student trying to access the single hardcopy of a resource at the same time, are alleviated when using online resources that allow access by multiple users.


3. How will students use online resources?

Aa above, the goal of the lesson is not to simply find resources on the Internet, it is using the information gathered from these resources to address educational needs; unless, of course, the title of your lesson is "Googling the Internet."

A side "idle thought:" a current topic of discussion among Ohio technology directors is whether or not Google's Terms of Service, particularly section 2.3 which stipulates "You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google," actually prevent those under 18 from legally using Google. Some notes on the legal intracacies of K-12 technology programs will be introduced in a later post.


The best research includes online sources as a component of the whole, which includes “offline” materials available to the student in the school’s media center and media center specialist (if the school is lucky enough to have one), local library, and other sources. However, since we are stressing online research in this lesson, students will be using the information from these online resources as the core of their investigation. As such, they will use the information gathered in their online search as their primary source material for a 1-2 page written report of their research findings and for the in-class discussion. Students will be required to include a reference list that includes the correct web address for the two sites provided by the teacher and an additional 4 sites of their own discovery.

Since this is an elementary lesson and may be the class’ first experience with a basic webquest, and since our primary goal is to promote the student’s active learning of the core lesson, I would not include a deep critique of the sites consulted and their usefulness in this particular experience. It would be of value to the class, however, to remind students about the indicators of site authority, such as the significance of site extensions such as .edu, .org, .gov, and .com, as the opportunity arises in the general flow of the in-class review.


4. Do students have the necessary information analysis/information synthesis skills?

As noted earlier, we're not questing for the sake of the quest; we're using it to gather information that the student will analyze and synthesize into an understanding of the curricular driver of the lesson. The teacher must consider whether the students have the prerequisite knowledge and skills to do that, or if those must be developed as part of the lesson. However, since this may be an introductory experience focused on developing enthusiasm for the subject and the active learning of online research, although information analysis and synthesis are expected the teacher may choose not to hold the students to the same standard of higher level tasks that would be expected from a more advanced group.

Since performing online research is also a focus of this lesson, you should include an analysis of the webquest process itself. Why did you consider the two sites you presented to the class “authoritative?” Was there a particular benefit to the hyperlinks on the teacher-provided sites? What are the benefits / drawbacks of using a search engine to locate websites for your research? What are the benefits / drawbacks of using links from sites you’ve already found? What is the significance of a site’s domain type identifier?

In our district, we have the benefit of media centers with trained media specialists in all our buildings; make sure you utilize this resource and her knowledge of online materials available to our students (INFOhio resources available for free to all Ohio schools and students, free and subscription sites purchased by the districts that students can access, and so on).


5. Do I have the necessary time and support for the activity?

Two factors are often cited as barriers to the success of online learning strategies; they can take longer than traditional learning strategies, and technical problems can derail the lesson plan. While neither of these two issues will ever be eliminated, they should not result in missing the opportunity to provide an excellent learning option to your students and the likelihood of encountering these barriers can be minimized by some proactive planning.

Time is always an issue, as teachers are expected to teach more material to a higher level of understanding in a smaller time window, but using technology for webquests offers a way to integrate the additional "technology education" standard into an existing lesson to increase student performance on both. Once familiar with webquests, you will become proficient at identifying even further opportunities for integration that may actually reduce the total time needed to address these multiple areas. For instance, the lesson framework presented could easily integrate additional information literacy, history, math, geography, and other standards.

In Whitehall, the media specialists can also resolve many of the technical issues that might be encountered during a webquest, which is another reason I would utilize the media center to perform the online project. Since there are more computers in the lab than students in the classroom, should a problem be encountered on one workstation the students would be able to move to a working computer without interrupting the lesson. Short of a total network or Internet connection outage, which is very rare, technical problems should not be an issue.

I would, however, confirm prior to the class that the websites I know I will be visiting are accessible. Since the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA - another legal issue worthy of consideration in a later post) requires that districts have web filters, there is always the possibility that a site you have found valuable at home may be blocked for the district. For example, we have one teacher in our district who would like to access YouTube for geometry lessons, but the site is blocked due to the inappropriate materials it contains. Protecting the students is paramount, so facts such as these are unfortunately a fact of life in schools. Taking proactive measures like checking the site prior to class use will ensure that the site is accessible through the filter. Checking the site in advance will also ensure that it doesn’t require specific add-ons, such as a specific version of Flash or Shockwave, that is not installed on the district computers, and provide time to find an alternative to that sitesite.




REFERENCE:

Coulter, B., Feldman, A., & Konold, C. (2000). Rethinking online adventures. Learning & Leading with Technology, 28(1), 42-47.