WebQuests, Anyone?

WebQuests, originated by Bernie Dodge and Tom March, are popular examples of what Warlick and Jakes would call the "right kind" of online assignments. Conduct a search for WebQuests and you will find hundreds and hundreds of examples, some misnamed, but many offering what Dodge refers to as "inquiry-based [activities] designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it."

Each WebQuest is built around a task, which provides a context and motivating goal for student work. In his article "A WebQuest Taskonomy", Dodge gives examples of interesting tasks, falling into 12 different categories. These range from mysteries-as in "King Tutankhamun: Was It Murder?" developed at Washington Intermediate School in Pekin, Ill.-to consensus-building Quests such as Tom March's "Searching for China," which has students reading about and debating six different perspectives in order to arrive at a common policy recommendation.

WebQuests offer great ways of enriching the curriculum while teaching students to analyze and synthesize information they find online and elsewhere. If you're looking for exciting WebQuests to try out with your students, you can start with the sites by Bernie Dodge and Tom March, the originators of the WebQuest model. Better yet, you and your students can use some of the examples as inspiration for building relevant WebQuests of your own.