WEBQUEST

Webquest is a didactic model that consists of a guided investigation where most of the information comes from the Internet . The concept was proposed by Bernie Dodge (a researcher at San Diego State University ) in 1995 .

This type of activity, say its proponents, promotes the work in equipment , autonomy of students and the use of higher cognitive skills. It also helps students acquire skills related to the information society (a concept that refers to the era that human beings are currently going through, with unprecedented access to information, both for its dissemination and for its consumption ).

The webquest usually offers attractive tasks that invite the student to adopt an active behavior. The creative thinking is necessary for problem solving and analysis of statements, since the activity requires an additional effort to the fact answer a simple question.

The first step to develop a webquest requires a space on the Internet, whether from the development of a website , a blog or some similar publication. The teacher must include an introduction to the project, the task to be carried out, the suggested resources and an evaluation, among other sections.

A webquest can be of short duration (when it has the objective of acquiring and integrating knowledge of a subject in the short term) or of long duration (when it is intended that the student manages to develop capacities of deduction, induction and abstraction).

It is important to distinguish between the webquest and the so-called treasure hunt . While in the first activity the student must transform and process the information , in the treasure hunt he is simply asked to find the answer to a given question.

Despite their usefulness, webquests represent one of the many tools that teachers have at their disposal and are not adequate to achieve any educational objective. Specifically, they are not very effective for memorizing historical facts, for learning simple procedures, and for acquiring new definitions.

To successfully complete a webquest it is necessary to have a good level of reading comprehension ; therefore, they are not appropriate for younger students or those with language difficulties. However, it is possible to take advantage of the assistance of adults who are willing to read the statements and information aloud, to guide children who cannot complete the activities on their own.

In technical terms, a webquest is nothing more than a simple web page, so the tools necessary for its development are the same as those used to create any other type of document for the Internet. The most advanced users, who trust their knowledge enough to not require constant assistance when programming, they usually use the notepad included in their operating system or applications similar to Notepad ++, an open source text editor very popular among programmers of all ages. idioms.

For those who appreciate the security that a syntax checker provides, there are various programs, such as FrontPage and Dreamweaver, that allow the creation of web pages in a short time and through graphical interfaces, which eliminate the need to program each line of code. and save time for those who value aesthetics more than accuracy.

There are also sites that are specifically dedicated to creating webquests, such as Questgarden and Zunal, which guide their users step by step through the process. On the other hand, teachers can make use of the numerous services of free pages and blogs, and adapt them to the webquest format; two highly visited providers for this purpose are WordPress and Edublogs.