WebQuests for Global Understanding

Prepared for a chat on Tapped In on October 25, 2001 by Bernie Dodge

In the aftermath of last month's tragedy, we've all been groping for appropriate lessons and activities to bring into our classrooms. Since WebQuests are designed to engage understanding of complex issues, perhaps they can be used to help our students grapple with cultural differences, international conflict, and the challenge of creating peace. In this Tapped In session we'll study some examples and discuss what a good WebQuest looks like in this domain.

This is a vast and fuzzy topic. We can only make sense of it by breaking it out into smaller subsets of some kind. One way to do that is to categorize example WebQuests by the type of task they are wrapped around. Each task type supports a different aspect of learning.

Task Type	Learning Goals	Examples
Journalistic tasks ask learners to act as if they were eyewitnesses to a particular time and place, and to communicate that experience accurately.	Factual knowledge; personal identification (sometimes)	Analyzing Afghanistan Ibn Battuta: The Amazing Adventure
Analytical tasks involve dissecting complex events and concepts.	Intellectual understanding; concept building.	Searching for Common Ground Social Movements in World History
In Consensus-building tasks, learners are steeped in a single point of view and charged with creating a document or making a decision that takes multiple views into account.	Comprehension of complexity; negotiation skills; empathy.	Quest for Peace and Diplomacy Challenge, Intrigue and Perspective

Some other WebQuests that don't take full advantage of the format:

How could these be enhanced?