Using an online experience as a lesson

Any teaching topic listed in the GLCEs are sure to be covered in some form online. The trick is finding the good resources and setting students up for meaningful and important learning. WebQuests are interactive websites that present students with material and test their knowledge on any number of topics.


Personally I have used a WebQuest on the topic of Ancient Egypt quite successfully in my class. Mr. Somoa's Magic Book is actually a lot of fun to play for kids and adults. You can read my review of this WebQuest by clicking this link to GoogleDocs here. I would actually like to talk about creating my own WebQuest to fit my own needs and the needs of my students.


I would like to create a WebQuest on an upcoming topic in my classroom. For the past few years I have taught about topics like Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire and the European Explorers. This year I would like to create an interactive experience where students are forced into the role and learn by interacting digitally.


Using Instructional Design, I can design an entire unit around a topic. This can be clearly organized and sequenced to facilitate self paced student learning.  


I would by first introducing the topic with videos and articles. I could supplement that with instruction in many forms both traditional and digital such as lectures or my own personal power point. Students could demonstrate their understanding by creating their own Website, wiki, video, song or other project. It may be harder to do more advanced so it might be a good idea to first teach students things like creating, editing and uploading videos or using garage band to make an educational song.


At the end I could create a stand alone power point to test students knowledge on the topic. The presentation could be tailor to meet my students needs and would provide direct feedback instantly whether I am next to the student or not. All of this process would feed back to the terminal objective of the lesson.