This was week was a change of pace in our educational technology class. Rather than explore several websites and tools online, we became familiar with and developed our own webquest. A webquest is an online lesson for students at any age level. Teachers create an engaging journey that allows students to learn more about a topic in a fun way. Webquests can be set up as an independent exploration, or in my case, designed for a group.
This week I designed by first webquest, called "Musical Instrument Adventure". The URL for my webquest is http://questgarden.com/author/members.php . This webquest is aimed towards 2nd and 3rd grade students who are learning about instrument families, and the instruments which belong to those four families (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion). Students will be split into "exploration teams" of four, and will assign one person to be an expert in their instrument family. They will work together and take turns exploring the websites I provided, and once they are done, will fill out an information chart to organize their thoughts and findings.
I enjoyed creating my webquest this week for several reasons. The first reason is that it truly caused me to focus on the lesson itself. The webquest host site I used is QuestGarden, and the process for creating the webquest was VERY tedious. But- it was great! There were so many "check points" where you really had to reflect on what exactly you were trying to get across to your students and to other teachers as well. Several times I went back and made changes to my webquest, trying to make it better, clearer, and more fun.
The second reason I enjoyed creating a webquest was because it is a completely different teaching approach for me than what I am currently used to. Being a special areas teacher, I do not see my students every day and very rarely allow them to work on their own. This is mostly because with our short 30 minutes of time together, I try to fit in a lot of music, a lot of performing, and a lot of hands on activities. This webquest is hands on- but in a totally different way! Students get to work together and take turns trying different virtual instruments, discussing their findings, etc. It will certainly feel odd at first not having "control" over the lesson (as if I do now! ha!).
The third reason I enjoyed creating this webquest is because we do not have orchestra instruments in our classroom. The kids have no access to actual orchestral instruments until they are in 4th and 5th grade, yet they are required to have knowledge about them. This webquest allows them to look at virtual instruments in 360 degree views, listen to the instruments, read about them, play games matching their sounds to the correct instrument, and much more. These website resourcs allow them to develop a knowledge base that absolutely could not come from a cd, movie, book, picture, or lecture.
I had some struggles this week as I designed my webquest. Being that it was my first one, I wasn't super confident in what I was doing. However, as I mentioned earlier, the GardenQuest site literally walks you through the design process, step by step. Although I had help, I still had to research and double check each thing I was doing and adding to make sure it was the right fit for the webquest.
Overall, I am excited to use my webquest this coming school year, and very eager to see how my students react to them as well.
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