ED4134 Week Four: Pedagogical Beliefs and ICT Intergration

WebQuests entails six essential fundamentals that include;

1)An introduction page to provide background information

2)A task page

3)A set of ‘information sources’ (Dodge, 1997) to complete the task 

4)A description of the process that the learners will go through when completing the task

5)Assistance on how to organise the information they have collected

6)A conclusion page that closes the activity and summarised what the students should have accomplished

As a result, there are several constructive benefits of implementing the use of a WebQuest in the respective learning classroom engagements, however one particular important component is that the facility provides ‘not only promote cooperative learning and higher-level thinking, but demand it’ (Pellicone, 2008, p. Abstract). Due to this notion, it is imperative to employ the use of WebQuests in the classroom. Also, WebQuest’s promote and encourage students to engage in collaborative group work- increasing the students understanding of the presented focus in the learning experience as a multitude of ideas and concepts can be explored and displayed in modeled situations out of the classroom setting where students learn to negotiate and compromise with one another. Lastly, the WebQuest’s involve the use of Higher Order Thinking Skills as students are highly actively absorbed and interactive with the presented context of the learning engagement. These include skills such as Comparing, classifying, Inducing, deducing, analyzing errors, constructing support, abstraction and analyzing perspectives. As a result, students will obtain more from the learning experience as opposed to being subjected to lessons that were less interactive.  

In conclusion, Short term WebQuests explore Knowledge acquistion and integration, where a learner will have investigated a significant mount of new information and had a chance to make sense of it all (Bernie, 1997). In addition, Long term Webquests extend and refine knowledge, as a learner would have analysed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to on or offline (Bernie, 1997). Each component of WebQuests are designed to make the best use of the learner’s time.

An Example of effective WebQuest can be viewed at: So You Think You Can Run A Restaurant?
Available from: http://questgarden.com/47/60/6/070307175412/t-index.htm

Reference:

Dodge, B. (1995) Some thoughts about webquests. Available from: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html

Pellicone, L. (2008). WebQuests: an online learning strategy to promote cooperative learning and higher – level thinking. AARE 2007 International Education Research Conference, 26 – 29. Retrieved March 20, 2009, from A+ Education.

Article: The Question is the Answer

The interactive step by step article explores the different aspects of a webquest and their significance. This article explores and discusses the essential necessity for students to contemplate, in depth, into the meaning and significance of presented questionings and the information they will actively seek to obtain to answer these questions. Students need to concentrate on what the question is speifically asking and the essential required thought, instead of simply finding information that answers the question and recording it. “Students should spend their time researching important questions, questions which require original thought. No more simple “Go Find out About” research which requires information gathering but little thought.” (McKenzie, 2000). Therefore, it is in my opinion that the questions themselves are the actual means in which students learn proficiently and how. Through this, student’s develop higher order thinking skills variable on the questions presented. Questions that ask Why, How or ask a student to evaluate which is best and will produce a better outcome are such questions that should be used. Thus one could insinuate that Important thinking requires one of these three steps: 1) Why? 2) How? 3) Which is best?

A good guide in developing a plan to implement to achieve these questions can be linked to  the notion McKenzie (2000) provided as a vision of a research cycle to use for Webquests.

Additionally, the cycle is constantly reiterating the concept of evaluation through the context of the process, a significantly important and vital aspect of the research cycle. Moreover, having clear steps for students is imperative for them to achieve and sense positive and assuring feelings of achievement, thus engaging means for internal motivation.          

Moreover, thought processes such as: Questioning – planning – gathering – sorting, sifting, analyzing – synthesising – evaluating – reporting, as well as the research cycle; encourages the students to look ahead of finding the answer to the question and finding out exactly what the question means. Also, students are urged in finding an appropriate answer and questioning why that answer is suitable. This also supports higher order thinking whereby the students are processing the information. Higher order thinking is essential as it ‘enhances the levels of student engagement and emphasises the construction of meaning as a central goal of the learning process’ (White, 2008, p. Abtsract). When students engage in higher order thinking activities they are more likely to remember the task and they were able to relate the information to their life experiences and contextualise the answers to the questions.

Week Four Reflection Questions:

Which learning style does this ICT support? This ICT supports audio learning as the students are able to hear the sounds of a forest.

How could this ICT be implemented as a good cognitive tool within the learning environment? This ICT could be implemented as a good cognitive tool for students when studying a unit on the environment in particular forests. As they would be able to hear some of the sounds that are present in this environment. Other audio materials could be used for a variety of subjects such as learning the timetables by singing along or saying out loud. This repetition helps students to memorize facts and to experience the world outside the classroom.

How is this ICT enabling the development of creativity? This ICT helps enable the development of creativity as the students are able to develop a sense of a situation through the audio. This allows them to gain a better understanding of the subject matter. Creativity is also developed as the students may wish to make their own audio to go with a subject. This could easily be incorporated into music lessons where the students may experiment with a variety of instruments to create themes of sounds.

 McKenzie, J. (n.d.). The question is the answer. Available from: http://questioning.org/module/module1.html