Lesson 6 – WebQuest – Social Skills Development

This WebQuest, Social Skills Development (http://questgarden.com/127/89/8/110614063909/t-index.htm), provides an overview of the importance of developing strong social skills for middle school students.  It includes the following:

An experiential role-playing exercise that highlights understanding how a student’s behaviors affect others;

"Hi, I am Frustrated Frog.  I'm stuck in one exaggerated emotional mode of operation."

Two research tasks, one for gathering more information surrounding social skills and the other regarding what development tools are available;

A group presentation to demonstrate the students’ synergy of the information and;

An individual peer review task related to the presentations.

This WebQuest includes a variety of individual and group work activities.  It addresses the diverse learning needs of the students by incorporating numerous assessment types and opportunities such as, online research, group participation, worksheets, peer review, and a group presentation.

I loved this assignment.  This integration of various teaching techniques and assessment tools made it seem like what teaching is all about.  I think the development of a WebQuest assignment helps to ensure quality learning by breaking a larger project into smaller parts with systematic processes.  It enhances the possibility for comprehension and relevant assessment.  It is an application relevant in today’s world of technology for students. 

I attempted to cover all the components that make a ‘good’ WebQuest including the following:

Engaging the students through use of quotable engaging thoughts and fun images;

Providing an clear overview of the assignment in the task section;

Explaining the process in concise, logical steps in the process section and;

Concluding by tying it all together through a wrap-up classroom discussion, which allows students an opportunity to express themselves.

I also hope the content promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills through the WebQuest task of researching the topic online.  Then, having the students choose a tool they prefer including an explanation for their preference requires them to engage in analytic reasoning. 

This was the first time I attempted developing a rubrics.  I am sure my inexperience shows through.  After writing advertising and marketing objectives in my previous career, I understand the importance and expertise it takes to develop measurable, well-worded goals.  I look forward to continued growth in that area when I finish my degree and become a teacher.

I was remiss in providing Dr. Goldberg and the University of the Cumberlands appropriate credit on the Credits page.  I will take a moment to acknowledge my appreciation now.  Thank you for the quality education I am receiving at both the University and in this class.  It is not ‘academic’ as usual higher education can be, but it is providing applicable tools to prepare me to be a quality educator. 

The challenges I encountered developing this WebQuest reminded me of the days I was teaching myself Microsoft PowerPoint.  I took some time to get the 'lay of the land' by understand how the website was laid out and what was expected in each of the headings.  Logistically, I had formatting fits.  I found myself toggling between PowerPoint, MS Word, the WebQuest editor, and the WebQuest Preview.  I was not comfortable creating the content in the WebQuest editor.  I am a creature of comforts.  I am glad though because the word processing feature is a bit primitive.  I am not sure if this is typical of other webpage development programs, but I suspect it is.  I do the same when I write these blogs, I develop the content in MS Word then transfer the information over to the blog.  Not having the ability to edit in the WebQuest preview screen because the webpage did not refresh when I saved my work in the editor created inefficiencies.  Also, QuestGarden’s organization of the information was a little confusing.  I would like to see editor/development tool follow the ‘published’ flow of the product more closely.  Last, the “Overall Design” feature is still unclear to me.  I cannot ascertain how the design patterns vary from each other.  I read how they differ, but I could not determine how it was applied in the format or the end product itself.

Although it was challenging creating the WebQuest itself, I loved the task.  Since I’m not teaching, I imagine or I hope, this explained my difficulty in developing a topic and then, determining an assignment that supports the idea.  I like the process and the components because they are logical to me.  The components help to ensure I did not overlook an important aspect of an assignment.  I honestly did not use the “Checkpoint” feature due to time constraints, but what a great self-assessment opportunity!  I will use this feature in the future.

Overall, the editing and organizational issues I encountered are minimal compared with the advantage of knowing this tool exists and having gained some experience in developing a WebQuest for future education purposes.  I will do it again in a heartbeat.