my eXcitiNg wEbQueSt!! =)

heyhey! :)

i've decided to start journalling on this topic since it is the freshest in my mind! Do pardon my use of informal language since i feel like i'm semi-talking to myself! hahaha.. oh well.. here goes..

What do you intend the students to learn?
For this webquest project, Michelle, Cheepeng and I chose the topic of "Rivers" and our webquest touches on River Management and the controversies of dam construction, which is an evident issue in many countries, all the world today. From this webquest we hope to:
1. Involve students in the reality of dam construction concerns
2. Actively engage them in the use of Information technology tools/resources to aid them in extracting relevant information
3. Approach geography in another fun, engaging and exciting way! =)

How did you transform the big ideas?
The big idea that we wanted to bring across was that "River Management is not merely a political issue". It should be the concern of not only the country's government but also the citizens, especially those using the River directly.

How did the events of the lesson unfold?

It starts off with an introduction on what the entire webquest is about, followed by the explanation of the task and process, where the students are made to role-play as a special taskforce that the government has tasked to survey the population's stand on the Dam construction. They are to reach a common conclusion on whether or not to go ahead with the construction of the dam. Thereafter they have to design a political poster/ storyboard/ cartoon as a form of propaganda to persuade the population on the government's stand on the issue.

How did you make sense of lesson delivery?
The instructions and evaluation rubrics are all included into the package, in the form of an interesting, colourful powerpoint presentation. Thus, the lesson delivery is rather straightforward with introduction, task, process, resources, evaluation format and a conclusion, for the teacher to go through at the end of the webquest lesson.

What did you learn from the experience?

I've learnt that creating a webquest can actually be quite interesting and simple as plenty of resources and templates are readily available on the internet. Besides role-playing, webquests can also be used for many other tasks such as:

- problem or mystery to be solved;
- position to be formulated and defended;
- product to be designed;
- complexity to be analyzed;
- personal insight to be articulated;
- summary to be created;
- persuasive message or journalistic account to be crafted;
- a creative work, or
- anything that requires the learners to process and transform the information they've gathered.

Does the experience teach others?
I do hope so! It will be a systematic guide for the students to follow in their search for information and discussions. Through this experience, students will assimilate their own ideas, with the introduction of role-playing and taking on of different perspectives , and understand that such issues require careful contemplation because the impacts are often two-fold.

What does it teach you about student learning?

It taught me that proper scaffolding is essential to guide the students through the lessons and it is important to state clearly what the expectations are and allow student's room to express their creativity through challenging, interesting tasks.

On the whole, I really enjoyed the entire process of creating the webquest package! The sense of satisfaction was overwhelming as I went through the finished product! =) My concern would be peoper time management in carrying out such activities with my classes in the future. It is essential to have a follow-up activity to evaluate the effectiveness of the webquest project and to assess on whether the students have benefitted individually from the activities! ^_^