Creating WebQuest are an excellent way to help beginning teachers in many areas. I realise now that in teaching a particular topic, we can use WebQuest to zero in on an important section of the topic, or even get students to learn and gather information outside of their syllabus. I would think that this could be the key to creating a thinking classroom in school.
In the process of creating the WebQuest, I had to muster all past knowledge and experiences from the ICT module where I had to create a Problem Based Learning lesson using PowerPoint. I must admit that a lot of skills learnt from that module have long turned rusty.
In putting this WebQuest together, situations that would arise in school are being addressed here as well. I especially think that having to generate a rubric for the WebQuest project assessment gives me a lot of insight of what a teacher should be looking for in an outstanding piece of work and one that is not up to par.
In this particular WebQuest on river management, drawing a focus on using dams, my group decided that students should investigate the different people that would be affected by the building of a dam. We have drawn up a task sheet to guide students in their individual analysis and facilitate their group discussion.
Our objective is to let students understand the plight of the different stakeholders and come to a conclusive decision on whether building dams would be more beneficial or detrimental. Having a more open ended project, the students would have to come up with their own arguments on why the dam should or should not be built.
I feel that this technique of using WebQuest to teach does live up to the “Teach Less Learn More” scheme that the government is promoting. It is good that students would be able to see that information and education is at a click of a mouse. Hopefully, this would inspire them to seek out more information on the topics they have learnt and have more than one perspective of Geography.
In the process of creating the WebQuest, I had to muster all past knowledge and experiences from the ICT module where I had to create a Problem Based Learning lesson using PowerPoint. I must admit that a lot of skills learnt from that module have long turned rusty.
In putting this WebQuest together, situations that would arise in school are being addressed here as well. I especially think that having to generate a rubric for the WebQuest project assessment gives me a lot of insight of what a teacher should be looking for in an outstanding piece of work and one that is not up to par.
In this particular WebQuest on river management, drawing a focus on using dams, my group decided that students should investigate the different people that would be affected by the building of a dam. We have drawn up a task sheet to guide students in their individual analysis and facilitate their group discussion.
Our objective is to let students understand the plight of the different stakeholders and come to a conclusive decision on whether building dams would be more beneficial or detrimental. Having a more open ended project, the students would have to come up with their own arguments on why the dam should or should not be built.
I feel that this technique of using WebQuest to teach does live up to the “Teach Less Learn More” scheme that the government is promoting. It is good that students would be able to see that information and education is at a click of a mouse. Hopefully, this would inspire them to seek out more information on the topics they have learnt and have more than one perspective of Geography.
No comments:
Post a Comment