"You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me." - C. S. Lewis

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts." - C. S. Lewis

Monday, August 6, 2012

Lesson 6

WebQuests:

What a week! I have designed WebQuests before, and find myself a little too picky for the generic fill in the blank and up it goes type of WebQuest. So I created my WebQuest from the ground up and connected it to my classroom website. I have been trying to come up with a way to ditch my social studies textbook for the exploration chapter for a while, but just have not had the time to invest in creating something new. My Educational Technology required me to create a WebQuest, so I am suddenly forced to have the time. If I had to take the time to create one, I decided it would be for that unit.

In my WebQuest, students are magically transported back in time to be apprentices under their assigned famous explorer. As an apprentice, they have four tasks they must complete in order to have a successful adventure. The first task is to convince the King and Queen to fund their exploration journey. Secondly, they must create a recruiting poster in order to convince sailors to join this dangerous trip. Thirdly, they must create a PowerPoint showing and describing the tools they will need and what three personal items they would choose to bring and why. The final part of this WebQuest is students must create a mini-journal of six entries from the beginning of the voyage to the end when the famous explorer makes their discovery.

Some of the struggles I had with this WebQuest was time constraints. I tried to get ahead knowing the my brother would be getting married the week/end that I had to create this massive project, but being in the wedding party demanded more of my time than I expected. The fact I was too stubborn to go ahead and do the prefabricated designs added to my dilemma as it takes even more time to create the design from a blank page. However, it did get created, and although there are a few things I am still going to work on, it is mostly ready for my students in one month's time. One of my biggest problems was fixing all the dead links. That is a problem you run into when you are designing a website ... you are the one responsible for making sure the task page links to the process page. I think I have all the bugs worked out.  I plan on fixing my credits page, but for now I figured a list of the websites I used would suffice. I am really proud of this WebQuest and can’t wait to see how my student’s react to it. I used the paint program several times to modify pictures and really personalize the experience. Yes, that is my actual face in the picture of the Renaissance Queen. Check out my WebQuest and let me know any suggestions you may have!



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