Webquests

March's article, "The Learning Power of Webquests" provided me with a great basis for the impact webquests can have. In the article, March throughly explained the differences between good webquests and pseudo-webquests. Prior to reading the article, I felt I had a strong understanding of webquest. After reading it, I feel much more prepared for creating a webquest. Before reading the article and this class, I did not realize that webquests make students synthesize. I considered them more of a "web scavenger hunt for information". I understand now that students or small groups learn about a topic, evaluate and blend the information, present it to others in a creative and higher-order capacity.
I am very excited about creating and using webquest in my class. I feel I have a strong understanding of what is needed to create and evaluate outstanding webquests. I know that I need to make sure that students learn information individually or in a small group. The webquests that I want and should use have the students take this information and complete an activity that will make the students think prior to sharing it with classmates. I feel that the use of webquests will provide students a challenge because of the use of high-order thinking skills and provide for another chance of differentiation.