ED636 - Fall 2006

What I’ve Learned So Far

While we have learned a good deal so far, what made the biggest impression on me was the Web Quests. Until September the 6th I had never even heard of Web Quests. I have rarely used the Internet with my students in the past. The most they ever got to use the Internet was to see pictures of certain animals when we discussed them in class. With Web Quests, however, my students would be able to do so much more.
The first great thing that I saw with the Web Quests was people have already created so many that anybody can use. We went through at least four different Web Quests and saw links for many more. There were some which weren’t any good, but for the most part I was quite impressed with what I saw. They gave me ideas, and if I had more computers in my classroom (or even a projector that worked with my current computer) I think I would definitely use some of them. The best one that I saw was about Ancient Egypt. I would have been excited to use such a Web Quest when I was in school. It really was a “quest”. Users had missions to complete, there were interesting pictures, and there were links that lead to other interesting websites. I was immediately pulled into the Web Quest. There were others, though, that were not so great. One Web Quest that we viewed (only, I believe, so that we would never make one like it) was about pilgrims. The original idea was pretty good, but the creator had obviously not spent a lot of time creating it. It was short, without much content, and many of its links did no work.
Later on we are going to have to create a Web Quest as well. The idea worries me, mainly because of the work that will have to go into it to make it worth looking at. I do not want to have one like the Pilgrim Web Quest. Finding all the necessary links, pictures, and ideas will take quite a long time. The thing that worries me the most is that I have no idea how to create such a thing. It seemed in class that we were expected to know how to create webpages and the like, which I have zero experience with. Even though it isn’t due for quite a while I am already stressed just thinking about it.