WebQuest to Complete an Education Request!

"Ika, do you think you are the smartest person on this earth!?" 

That was how my teacher responded to me when I tried to explain different findings of a topic we discussed in the class. Since that day, I have never explored the subject, I just tried to meet her expectation which was mostly memorizing the materials that ended up in a written test 😵😪. 

Now that I am a teacher, I will not make my students experience the same insecure feeling in learning. There is no way that the school will let me discourage the students from their real learning process. I mentioned this to emphasize how education (in my context) has now gradually shifted the focus, from what Bloom called low-level order thinking (knowledge, comprehension, and application) to higher-level order thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation).

I feel like the education movement to the promotion of higher-order thinking has challenged teachers including me to redefine and re-formulate our teaching goal and design. In the middle of the digging journey, here I am, come across the idea of WebQuest! It is a learning platform that enables teachers to design a learning activity based on the websites as the sources. Through this platform, a teacher can explore the design of their learning activity by using task-based learning with the principle of critical thinking and collaborative learning. 

Let's take one WebQuest as an example to have a clear picture of how this platform can help us to create a meaningful learning in our class!

The teacher named the WebQuest "Oh, the Possibilities: Choosing an English Language Course Abroad". You will find how the teacher sets up a situation and create roles for each student in group work. Students need to research information from the sites the teacher provided in a list. The role assigned to them will let them feel a significant involvement in the task completion. By that, I can predict that their autonomous learning mode might be activated and will affect their learning motivation.

I can tell that this WebQuest is a good example. There are some reasons for giving that award. With the help of Tom March (1999), my arguments might sound convincing to you 🙈

Starting from the introduction: the engagement derived from the use of a proverb, questions, pictures, and the task description makes the task become an interesting activity to do!

Then, the question of the task is linked to the introduction made before. This shows a natural flow to the upcoming meaningful learning. I also found sufficient learning sources which are taken from websites to equip the students with background knowledge to complete their mission in the task. Next, the given roles match the mission in the task which will allow the students to work from different perspectives in the task completion. The production of an oral presentation and a written report will promote transformative thinking which requires higher-order thinking. What makes it impressive is that the teacher also attached the assessment rubric in the evaluation section. It will give students a clear idea of what is expected from their work! In the end, the teacher concluded the lesson by giving the students some reflective questions and also helped the students to bring the use of the learning in their future. All of my aforementioned points will crown the WebQuest as the high-quality one! 

It is very interesting for me to experience learning through WebQuest in a class as a student and to review a WebQuest. Believe me, I was trying to create one, but then it was ended as an abstract idea in my head before I finish this blog 😵

Please don't be as lazy as me, you might want to try making one here!

Once WebQuest is made, it can be used forever, however, it requires careful and thoughtful task design, so it may challenge teachers to create such a meaningful task. 

Finally, I hope after me, trying to convince you of how WebQuest works, you will agree with the title of this blog: WebQuest to Complete an Education Request! 

Sources:

images  https://www.pexels.com/

website http://questgarden.com/