WEEK 5: Project-based learning ! Webquests! What's that?

This week we were introduced to Project-Based learning and webquests. I thought in the first place that it was another of those trendy educational methodologies that emerges from time to time, but I read the articles with concrete examples of projects and webquests, and it proved me wrong.

If I had already heard of PBL though superficially, it was the first time for webquest, and I was amazed to read that they have been used in education for more than 10 years.

Both are inquiry-based methodologies and anchor in the constructivist approach to learning where learners who learn by doing are no longer passive recipients of their teachers’ information.

I really like this idea of putting discovery in the curriculum. Even if students generally feel safe with our traditional ways, they are somehow “blasé” of this teacher -centered approaches, and with PBL and webquests they are given the chance to be the leading parts of the teacher/learner paradigm.

What is interesting too is that webquests or projects do not need to be web-based and can be designed on paper, a simple and portable option for teachers with no web-based technologies around. However, the internet which offers a wide range of various types’ resources is certainly the most attractive to students.

On this matter, the discussion we had on the readings was particularly appealing .One fellow student raised the question of whether one methodology was the key to successful and effective learning. Of course not and we all agreed that eclecticism in our methodologies should be the rule to keep our students alert and motivated.

The TASK is at the basis of these inquiry-based approaches to learning. These tasks can go from the simplest to the most elaborated ones, matching Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills. Designing these tasks and their assessment is I think the most challenging parts of the webquest creation and need careful planning.Careful planning because if well-designed they can not only challenge students individually but also teach them how to work collaboratively which is ideal when you deal with mixed-ability classes.

What I liked the most is the research section of the inquiry because it was eye-opening to me.The last semester (I didn’t know about webquests) I wanted my students to write an informational report about environmental issues. I screened a documentary movie on this matter ‘HOME’ which was meant to be the trigger of their research, and then I released them in the world-wide-web jungle for the assigned task.

The task was to make them surf the web for information about environmental issues that particularly matter to them.The final product of this inquiry was the cited- above informational report. First, most of them handed in their works after the deadline. I think the main reason was their lack of web-searching skills; they should have spent a lot of time searching from one site to another. If I had browsed the web in advance, I would have provided them with relevant web resources already evaluated, and this would have facilitated their tasks.
In addition, I chose to make them work individually because I knew from experience that generally ONE extremely motivated student does the entire job, but assigning specific roles for the search would have lightened each student’s work.Also,the quality of their final products was not the one I expected. Even though they studied the prerequisites of the informational report in class and were given a model, they could not synthesize the results of their web search and plagiarized full parts of their internet resources.I shouldn't have assumed that they already learned how to synthesize and should have provided them with resources on this question.

This week I learned that projects and webquests are powerful tools to enhance learning because they involve processes and skills students will need in real life as exploration , organization and evaluation, but here again planning is essential for success.

Hassina