Reflections on WebQuest

I completed my WebQuest assignment with Daniel Garrett. With the exception of a few mistakes which took up way more time than necessary, the assignment ran rather smoothly. We chose a topic that had already been pursued by other webquest sites, and thus we had plenty of information and media to work with. Although any technology assignment seems like more work for just as much educational value, I found this to be an engaging and encourging project. At its completion, our webquest is certainly basic in comparison to many others we examined. The extra work of filling in the rest of the categories (evaluation, conclusion, a link for teachers, etc.) would probably have been very time consuming.
I believe that I would use such a resource in the classroom. Although I do not feel entirely comfortable using the webpage program, I do think I have enough basic skills to manage sufficiently. Furthermore, I do not imagine this being a daunting and time-consuming task. Rather, it would probably not take much longer than a a regular cut-and-dry lesson plan. I think that using the internet opens students up to a huge variety of resources that would be otherwise unavailable. Certainly another benefit is that students are directed to the websites an educator would link in the webquest, so students would have to be extremely intentional to get off task and fool about on the internet. Constant supervision would alleviate this problem. Students would also benefit from doing assignments totally on the computer in the way that webquest allows. It is very possible many will be confronted by many types of plans and programs in the workplace that are worked out over the internet in the same manner as webquest. In-depth on-line assignments are good preparation in this respect. However, I do see several negative effects of relying too heavily upon this educational construct. For one, it may make students too dependent on the internet to find information and locate educational resources. Students do need to be able to conduct research in books, on paper, and writing with pen or pencil. Obviously computers cannot provide this. Also, I am weary of having students sitting at computers for inordinate amounts of time working on their assignments. I think it is essential that students spend much of their educational experience in conversation, taking notes, moving around, and exploring books. Thus webquest assignments should be tempered with many other educational formats. However, I do understand that much of education is probably moving towards webquest-based education tools, and I pray that I will be prepared for the transition.