In doing my WebQuest research, I realized how much learning has changed since I was in elementary school--even high school, which ended a mere five years ago. We had floppy discs, two-dimensional games, eventually these super-disc things in which to learn on in the 6th grade, special CD-Roms, etc. The kids now can use WebQuests. Even better than that, teachers probably don't have to use half of their school budget on new technology that doesn't already exist. All they have to do is find a WebQuest or create one for free.
In my WebQuest experience--looking for them, judging them--I was completely blown away by the immensity of information accessible to a child on a simple instructional website. A child as young as age 5 could use one of these WebQuests. A website could be up-to-par with high schoolers as well, proving that the range of learning is deep as it is wide.
Our group research was less complicated than I expected. I was the group-analysis member of our team, and I enjoyed seeing how different WebQuests operated. I couldn't agree with how wonderful or awful WebQuests were with my teammates because they all had different viewpoints, but we eventually settled on the best and worst WQs we could find. Surprisingly, our best was about construction sites. How, exactly, can construction work be interesting to a middle-schooler? (Our group focused in on grades 6-8.) Well, a WebQuest certainly made it into a group project that promoted higher thinking, good technological usage of programming, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to see how a topic that is un-interesting to me can become interesting through a simple interactive activity website...the WEBQUEST.
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