The Benefits of WebQuests for Children

After completing my e-learning task on designing a WebQuest of my own with a partner, I was consequently left with a greater understanding of how teachers benefit from creating and using WebQuests. My uncertainties, however, lay in what the students gained from these online lesson plans. That was until I came across a website titled “Webquest – Benefits” which not only educated me on the benefits of WebQuests, but also the reasoning for why teachers need to teach technological skills to their students at school.

Within the article, David Thornburg, discusses the misunderstanding of many teachers, who believe that there is no need to incorporate technology into the classroom since kids already have access to technology in their homes. Thornburg states, however, that “while it is true that many of our kids have developed tremendous technological skills…it doesn’t mean that they have the research skills or the wisdom to know how to make meaning out of the stuff that they’re finding.” This is where the benefits of WebQuests comes in, as according to Dr. Bernie Dodge, these online lessons force kids “to make sense of what they are reading” in addition to learning how to work in groups, evaluating a multitude of resources and recognising and dealing with numerous perspectives on a specific topic.

So in short, WebQuests help to not only challenge children, but to teach them life long skills such as teamwork, and thus prepare them for success in the future.

Source: http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/crc/images/PAR72484.jpg