Week 6 Blog: Definitely a Learning Experience

This week has really been a learning week in that I have learned how to make a webquest. The assignment called for going to Quest Garden to make the webquest. I signed up for the free account, but when I went to hit the submit button, it wouldn’t submit. I followed the directions on the site, as there was a message telling visitors what steps to take should the submit button not submit. Mine didn’t, so I sent a Bug Report and they would manually upload my registration. However, I didn’t want to wait on Quest Garden, so I found Zunal, another site that allows free registration and creation of webquests. Zunal is very user-friendly, however, creating the webquest is time-consuming. Quest Garden did get back to me two days later. I was going to transfer my webquest to Quest Garden, but I decided that I liked Zunal better. I still have my account with Quest Garden as another resource. 

My webquest is called “To Frack or Not to Frack? That is the Question.” The webquest is designed to give sixth-grade students practice and experience in working on a group project; sharing the work; and collaborating on ideas. The subject matter involved hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, because it is a timely and interesting topic; one that affects everybody. The webquest did take time to create each section, as I had to search the web for the best evidence. I learned how to format my text and experimented with different graphics to make the webquest pleasing to the eye. The URL for my webquest is: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=206354.

I searched the web for other webquests, as I was unsure how mine was supposed to look. I found one webquest by Shenika McFadden of Edison State College called “Race As We Know It.” This webquest embodies just about everything that I didn’t want my webquest to be. I don’t know if it is age-appropriate or not; this was not mentioned. The task seemed to be busy work and there was no process listed. Also, the webquest contained too many mechanical and grammatical errors. I didn’t really care for it at all. The URL for this webquest is: http://questgarden.com/161/29/7/130719161101/

I did find a webquest that I thought was intriguing. It is called “A Conference of Creatures” by Pam Bolen of Delta College. This webquest is designed for fifth graders and Ms. Bolen employs the use of graphics and links for all of the sections. I found it to be quite nice, however I did not see where any standards were addressed. I particularly liked the subject matter. It is easily adaptable across grade levels and has the potential to address Common Core Standards for writing. The link for this webquest is: http://questgarden.com/161/30/4/130719192532/t-index.htmhttp://questgarden.com/161/30/4/130719192532/t-index.htm