AED 811 – Exploration 5 – WebQuests
Opening statement
The subject matter of my WebQuest was prompted by the explanation of the basic components of a WebQuest on Zunal.com. Under the heading of introduction, Zunal recommends using your creativity to “hook” students. Beyond just writing the introduction, I took this as a call to “hook” students with the subject matter as well. There is one thing that late teenagers and young adults know all to well, the selfie. As a focus of exploration by artists, the self-portrait is fundamental and historically significant. I chose examples by a diverse group of artists to promote the idea of creating self-portraits as a way to expose diversity issues in the broader community. Also, I chose examples that may be less familiar to students to expand their knowledge of art history. In Some Simple Thoughts on WebQuests, Bernie Dodge states, “After completing a longer term WebQuest, a learner would have analyzed a body of knowledge deeply, transformed it in some way, and demonstrated an understanding of the material by creating something that others can respond to, on-line or off-.” This resonated with me when creating my WebQuest. Ultimately, after closely examining the history of self-portraiture through the examples, the students will create self-portraits to share both on-line and off-. I include hashtags to share on social media throughout the process and a hashtag to share the final self-portrait. I encourage students to share and comment on their own posts and the posts of their peers. However, according to Gulati’s Constructivist pedagogy study (2004) regarding learner interaction in online education situations, not all students will want to or should be forced to participate. “Research discussed in the paper demonstrates that participation in online discussion is not a neutral experience and may be influenced by learner’s contexts, their previous learning experiences, feelings of trust and safety to take risks and make mistakes, and power discourses due to and outside the online learning space.” (Gulati, 2004) With this in mind, I have been sure to include verbiage in my WebQuest that encourages interaction but allows those who choose not to interact to feel comfortable in that choice. In the process of reading the materials presented and creating my WebQuest I realized that this course was very much akin to WebQuest in itself. Viewing it from that perspective helped me to better understand how to create my own. A link to my WebQuest, “SELFIE MAGIC!” is below.
References
Some Simple Thoughts on WebQuests by Bernie Dodge (1995-1997, San Diego State University)
Gulati, Shalni (2004). Constructivism and emerging online learning pedagogy: a discussion for formal to acknowledge and promote the informal