I think students’ reading levels need to be taken into consideration when creating computer-based instructional objects. Many of the sites that I visited were geared toward young children, but there was no audio to go along with the directions. Many of the sites could be used with older partners, parent volunteers, or teachers, but could not be used independently. I think detailed directions need to be available. Many of the WebQuests required students to hit the back arrow, navigate away from the WebQuest, print, or copy and paste documents in order to manipulate them. I also believe that one should ask themselves if the WebQuest is more beneficial for students and how it is enhancing their learning. I felt like many of the WebQuests I came across were just for the sake of using technology and not using technology to benefit learning. It was very difficult to find exemplary WebQuests. The two I found are good, but not excellent. http://questgarden.com/107/97/4/100810094035/ is a WebQuest that deals with rhyming. It contained video, questioning, and gave feedback to the student. I like the use of metaphor on the site. http://questgarden.com/103/98/4/100523074301/process.htm is a WebQuest about identifying the vowels in the alphabet. I thought this site was a good resource because it gave feedback to the student, used audio, used scaffolding, and gave clear directions. It was one of the few sites that I believe could be used by younger students independently.
I agree with what you said about many of the webQuests using technology just to use it rather than to have it affect student learning. I was disappointed with many of the webQuests that I came across becuase they just had the students going to different websites and copying down information. I was hoping that they would require more higher level thinking skills.
ReplyDeleteI had many of the same ideas about what needs to be taken into consideration when creating a project for students to use independently. I think that reading level is the most important. I like your ideas of including audio to help guide students through the assignment.
I like the idea of using more audio in WebQuests for younger children. I'm sure that most older children would benefit from that as well. I agree it is difficult to find WebQuests that can be used for our youngest students. I like the ones you found!
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