Lisa's English 516 Research Blog

My Research - Moving Along Slowly

2004-10-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

This has become frustrating. I'm searching for research on WebQuests and finding a lot more fluff than anything of substance. An interesting trend is a lot of mention about motivation. It seems to me that more teachers are drawn to these kinds of projects becuase really they just find their students are more willing to participate and are more engaged. Older articles reference WebQuests as a tool for better learning while the newer articles talk much more about how their more useful simply from a participation standpoint. Here's what I've got so far:
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<>Bacon, Pamela. “Where the Kids Are.” School Library Journal. July 2004: 28+
This article is essentially an account of a high school librarians creation of a WebQuest designed to teach students how to perform research in a library using technology tools. The author sites some specific examples of the effectiveness of the project, but for the most part this article is simply a small feature. I do not see it as research I would use for my project

Dodge, Bernie. “Five Rules For Writing a Great WebQuest.” Learning & Leading with Technology. 28:8 (2001): 7+
Written by one of the pioneers of WebQuest learning, Bernie Dodge, this article basically focuses on the main components of a quality WebQuest. Dodge offers very practical advice for K-12 teachers on what specifically they should include. It offers a model of WebQuest development the authors calls the five FOCUS principles: Finding Great Sites, Orchestrate Learners & Resources; Challenge your Learners to Think; Use the Medium; and Scaffold High Expectations. Since this seems to be a popular method for creating many of the quests I’ve seen, it will be useful as a reference.

Dodge, Bernie. “Some Thoughts about WebQuests.” 5 May 1997 (17 Oct 2004)
This article is essentially lists the critical pieces of a good WebQuest and the types of learning that result from these activities. It does offer some good examples that could be used to show the diversity of WebQuests.

Dodge, Bernie. “WebQuest Taskonomy: A Teaxonomy of Tasks.” 17 May 2002 (27 Oct 2004)
This article defines all of different tasks that students should be expected to complete in a WebQuest, what students should gain from those tasks, and tips for successfully integrating those tasks into a WebQuest.

March, Tom. “Working the Web for Education.” 2000 (27 Oct 2004)
Written by another pioneer of WebQuests, Tom March, thus article describes in basic detail what a WebQuest is, what they are effective for, what they are not effective for, and offers links to a number of examples.

McGlinn, James E. and Jeanne M. McGlinn. “Motivating Learning in a Humanities Class through Innovative Research Assignments: A Case Study.” U.S. North Carolina. (2003): 2-19
This article discusses a research project on WebQuests conducted at the University of North Carolina on WebQuests and their ability to motivate students to learn. The researchers took a group of students and allowed them to choose between writing a traditional research paper, a creative narrative, or a WebQuest. They found that students preferred the WebQuests above other projects and that those students who participated in the WebQuests performed better overall than those who choose the other two options. It was an interesting article overall, but seemed more to make the point that students were more motivated when they perceived more options. It wasn’t necessarily commentary on WebQuests as much as commentary on assignment diversity in the classroom.

Sleeter, Christine and Sharon Tettegah. “Technology As A Tool.” Multicultural Education. 10 no 2 (2002): 3-9
This article addresses how WebQuests can be used as a tool in multicultural classrooms. The article basically asserts that teachers can encourage a greater understanding of cultural issues through these tools as they are essentially inquiry-based and not as static as traditional learning models. In the end, the authors conclude that WebQuests only change the cultural dynamic in a classroom rather then repair the inequalities that exist within the classroom.

Peterson, Cynthia and David Caverly and Lucy MacDonald. “TechTalk: Developing Academic Literacy through WebQuests.” Journal of Developmental Education. 26 no. 3 (2003): 38+
This article is deceiving in name. It essentially describes the steps necessary to create a WebQuest- Constructing, Planning, Instructional Strategies, Gathering Information, Arranging Information, and Presenting Findings. It’s fairly pragmatic and I’m not sure that I’ll really need much from it.

Thompson, Michael. “Teaching Reading & Writing with Great Tech Tools.” Media & Methods. Feb 2003: 8+
This article is basically fluff about how wonderful WebQuests can be for motivating students. The author basically says “students participate because they think it’s cool.” Not much here. I won’t use this article.

Wiley, Ellen. “WebQuest: A Solution for Online Learning.” The Southeastern Librarian. 50 no 2 (2002): 18-25
Probably the most useful article I’ve found so far, this article describes the nine Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning designated by the American Association of School Librarians. It offers clear definitions of each and offers good examples.

My Research Topic

2004-09-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

For my research project, I would like to discuss the use of WebQuests to teach writing. I stumbled upon the term WebQuest while searching library indexes on another topic and it caught my eye because truthfully, I had no idea what a WebQuest was. Being naturally curious about all things web, I started looking around for more information and was startled to learn that WebQuests are becoming an increasingly popular tool for teachers of all disciplines, but apparently they have been most widely used in the disciplines of English and Social Sciences. With a simple Google search, I found hundreds of links to working WebQuests in elementary schools, secondary schools, and colleges in countries spanning the globe.

According to Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University, a WebQuest is defined as "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet." Essentially, it involves a teacher creating scenarios and assignments that are conceived with a common educational goal in mind. Those assignments and scenarios are posted on an internet site and the students are generally required to use the internet to complete the assignments. For example, a teacher might require that students research a particular topic on the Internet and then go to a linked blog to discuss their findings. The WebQuests I’ve come across so far are vastly different in a number of ways, which makes them difficult to define in any standard way.

As naturally curious as I am of all things web, I also tend to be naturally skeptical of most new teaching tools that boast the flexibility and multi-disciplinary appeal that some WebQuest sites promise. In my experience, nothing in teaching (or anything else worth thinking about for that matter) is wrapped up in such a neat little package. I tend to believe that if the answers were that easy, if there are even any answers, we’d have found them long ago. Despite my cynicism, however, my preliminary research on the subject is swaying me in favor of WebQuests .

In my very preliminary opinion, WebQuests can be a powerful tool for integrating technology into writing classes. They can go beyond the limits of just using technology to write by actively engaging students in technology and encouraging discourse about and within technology. By integrating multiple web tools, they can accommodate multiple technologies and tasks such as blogs and wikis. I’ve seen WebQuests that focus on collaborative writing, others on individual writing, and even more that combine the two in some way.

There seem to be more pragmatic advantages as well. To bring us back to Cynthia Selfe once again, we as educators have to pay attention to technology. It is simply a reality of our world. Another unfortunate reality that I think we all agree upon is that the technological means of most school systems in America do not meet the technological needs. WebQuests, like blogs and other online writing tools, don’t necessarily require too much fancy technology. It seems that all a student really needs is Internet access and a teacher resourceful and creative enough to create meaningful and relevant WebQuests.

For this project, there are a number of questions that I need to explore. How do WebQuests encourage dialog between students? What are the characteristics of “good” WebQuests? What can we learn from WebQuests? What do they offer educators striving to help students gain literacy in ways that are meaningful and relevant to their culture? These questions, I believe, are key to the discussion of WebQuests as a tool for teaching writing.

Welcome

2004-09-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hello! My name is Lisa Smith. I'm currently in my third year of the Professional Writing graduate program at Eastern Michigan University. Of course, this program isn't supposed to take 5 years, but what can I say...I'm taking my time.

I'm keeping this blog as part of an assignment for English 516. The class explores the use of computers in the teaching of writing and throughout the semester I'll be posting various messages related to that topic.

So here goes...