A webquest is a controlled way of organizing web content to guide your students through an activity. You do the searching and organizing of content and your students move through that content to achieve a specific objective.
This is a webquest about webquests (with the added bonus of other tools you can use.)
OBJECTIVE: We are all at different places in our development and in what we require of technology. Today, you have a block of time: the time you have always wanted to fuss with your computer. Find one thing, one tool, one concept that you can use with your students before the end of the year, and focus on learning as much as you can about that thing. Then put together a specific activity. If you would prefer to begin with a technology tool that you can use to manage your classroom more effectively, do not hesitate to do that. The point is to focus and then get your hands dirty.
As you are exploring, jot some notes on the 3 x 5 card you have. About forty minutes before the end of the session, we will have time to report back to the group:
1. What was the most useful resource you found?
2. What was the most interesting resource that you wish you could explore more?
3. What was the most ridiculous resource you ran across?
Please leave your cards with me so that I can use them to update this webquest and maybe begin to think about directions we can go next time--if there is a next time.
GUIDELINES:
-Pick something manageable. Start small.
-Connect what you are doing with technology with specific concepts (connected to standards) that you want to teach. The Gee Whiz, Coolness factor of technology is not enough.
-Focus on tools that are freely available and that you have access to right now.
-Focus on tools that will make your life easier, not more difficult.
-Focus on using technology to do something you do now more efficiently and then replace what you used to do with the new tool.
-Focus on becoming more aware of "what is out there." (Yes, "what is out there" is constantly changing so this is a toughy.)
