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Spotlight Summary
Overview & Objectives
After being announced at NECC 2005 and opening to the public on Sept 1, 2005, QuestGarden has attracted more than 3000 users as of this writing one month later. Hundreds of WebQuests have already been produced with the tool with the usual predictable range of quality. On balance, though, the resultant lessons already are more technically polished than most first-time WebQuests. A harder benchmark is the pedagogical qualities. QuestGarden has built-in scaffolding to encourage higher level thinking skills. At this point, however, some are using QuestGarden to create worksheet-like lessons. The percentage is lower than elsewhere, but my goal is to make that percentage close to zero. By July of next year, I will have added more pedagogical help to QuestGarden and enhanced the use of peer feedback with the goal of raising the bar on WebQuest quality. As of this writing, I can't tell what twists snd turns lie between here and that goal, but I know it will make for an interesting story.
Outline
10 minutes: QuestGarden overview. What's was problem it was designed to solve? Who are its participants? What are its features? 5 minutes: Analysis of the kinds and quality of WebQuests that have been developed over the past year. A look at patterns of lesson development that have emerged. Surprises, mutations and disappointments. 20 minutes: Showcase of some of the best products made by teachers. 5 minutes: What's next? What new features are planned? 10 minutes: Q&A
Supporting Research
n/a
V-NECC-Virtually Extending NECC Over Time and Place
n/a
Presenter Background & Qualifications
I created the WebQuest model ten years ago and have conducted presentations and workshops about it across the US and in 9 other countries.
Prerequisites
Prior exposure to WebQuests.
Referenced Web Links (URLs)
http://webquest.org/questgarden/
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