This week I learned about webquests. I learned a lot because I have not had any prior experience with webquests. I can say without hesitation that this week's assignment was the toughest for me thus far. I would characterize the problems I had to be "mental". At first, since I had no prior knowledge, it took me a long time to grasp the actual webquest concept. Once I had a fairly stable understanding of what I was trying to accomplish, I had a hard time coming up with a subject. Since elementary teachers cover a large range of grades and subjects, I found the choices to be overwhelming. Also, there was a large selection of designs or concepts for webquests. This, combined with my difficulties choosing a topic and grade level, really frustrated me for a day or two. Also, I found the number of educational websites aimed at elementary students to be completely underwhelming. While this was frustrating, ironically, the lack of choices ultimately helped me find a topic.
I finally decided to create my webquest about Lewis and Clark. The link can be found here: http://questgarden.com/127/57/0/110607083600/. I had the opportunity to teach about Lewis and Clark this year while subbing in a 5th grade classroom so I already had some familiarity with this subject. Plus, I was able to find several good websites on this topic aimed at the elementary level. Finally, after settling on a topic and finding good websites, the process of actually assembling the webquest proceeded steadily, but slowly.
I have mixed feelings about the Questgarden website. I liked the fact that it took the creator through the process step by step. This helped me in creating my webquest. However, I also felt like the website was fairly limiting. Particularly, I disliked that I was not able to change the master design, other than the colors. I think that the basic design of the webquest websites looks like a website design from the 90's. I believe that their templates really bring down the quality of the whole project. In the future, I would probably just create a webquest from scratch, using a program like Dreamweaver that allows for much more flexibility.
After reviewing my finished webquest, I am happier with it than I thought I would be. I think that I was able to create a solid product; however, I do believe that my future webquests might be better. Creating a good webquest takes time. I spent a lot of time thinking about the webquest's concept. I believe that creating the very best webquest would take a lot more time than one week. If the main point of a webquest is to get students to think at a higher level, it is going to take a lot of planning time. This daunting part of the task is the reason I don't foresee using webquests a lot in my classroom. I can envision doing one or two a year; but no more than that.
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