My research for a cross-curricular project utilizing the internet landed me squarely in the land of web quests. It didn't take long to find several pages dealing with these. A list of quests that I first found had several dead links, which was disappointing at first. I did find one particular quest that seemed promising. Space Station Phyve has a group of objectives that leads students through several scientific processes and is one that requires a rather high level of communication skills. Students will have to incorporate much English(or Language Arts in my school) knowledge in order to be successful in the project. Since science and math usually end up together, it's not surprising that there is a mathematical element to this. Art also plays a role in the final project, as does at least some in the Social Studies arena. Thinking about the socialization of human beings in closed quarters will most likely be new for students. This seems like a good final activity/project for students, culminating our unit on space and its exploration. Of course there are tweaks to made to suit the individual teacher, but this one seems very well thought out.
My only concerns about this sort of project revolve around access for students. There are several ways around the limited access that would have to be pursued. I would be exceptionally nice if a tech coordinator could be talked into giving each team of students access to their own network folder to store all their work. A place that each student can access, edit and create without having to exchange hard copies. That would make this a project that I could do with my entire team, grouping students from different classes instead of just using the same, limited number in a single class. That would also allow students to potentially pick their own team? I know this is risky some times, but it does end the problem of having one student do all the work and then getting calls complaining about the performance of the partners. This way they choose their fate, succeeding as a group or crashing to the ground with those they chose.
More research will follow, but this is my initial thought of webquests.
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2 comments:
I like the webquests as they can be great augmentations to lessons or stand-alone as the case may be. I have devoted several prior posts and comments to webquests, so I won't rehash. But your group comment is interesting to me.
I think every teacher who has made group assignments has suffered from those that are dysfunctional (leading to complaints from several directions). Often what happens in the aftermath is that we become exasperated with the ones that don't work together properly and subconciously remind ourselves "it isn't worth the hassle!"
It might be worth considering (if you don't do this already) having the students go through a group training session where all are informed of the structure, rules, internal leadership, goals, etc. Obviously, finding time to do this can be critical, but I have found it to be essential for reducing the number of disjointed members. A good resource site is:
http://www.managementhelp.org/grp_skll/theory/theory.htm
It might be over the head of your students, but it contains some good group dynamic info (esp. the theory of rotational leadership) and could be easily watered down for suitability.
I have tried allowing the students to group themselves with mixed results. Quite often what happens is there are enough of the "outcasts" left over for a couple of groups and, in my honest opinion, they need to learn to cope and work with others outside of their particular scope rather than be left to their own devices, which seem to be doing not much at all! Just my two cents!
Thanks for sharing your webquest links. I'm actually reading and learning about webquests in another class, EME 5207: Designing Technology Rich Curricula. I was able to find the homepage of your link where there were search functions that narrowed resources by curriculum and grade level:
http://webquest.org/search/
I loved how ideas were submitted and then organized consistently through the SDSU database (intro, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, and credits), compared to clicking links that lead off to separate sites. Looking at the 3-5 grade webquests, I can say that they are to the point and easy to follow, but also challenges students to research a specific topic (I'm looking at the science ones) and allows ample opportunities for collaborative learning.
You are right though about access to students. While most high schoolers have means to travel to the library, friend's house, etc for Internet access nowadays, it's still an assumption we can't make for all, especially the younger students. I would definitely like to try some of the suggested webquests in class, where all my kids will have access, while allowing me to monitor their progress as well.
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