Project-Based Learning and WebQuests

           Another week has passed, eventful, demanding, exploratory, stimulating, absorbing. This week our attention was turned to the use of technology for doing projects and creating WebQuests. We have learned new ways of using technology in the classroom for enriching our students' learning experiences and helping them become more independent and autonomous learners.

          Project-based learning and WebQuests engage students in activities that require higher-order thinking skills as they have to read, collect, analyze and synthesize information from the web in order to complete the given task.  They also promote communication and collaboration among the students as the activities are done in groups, so that they need to work closely together in order to achieve the desired outcome.

            However, we have to use them wisely and appropriately, because, as Bernie Dodge says, not everything lends itself to being used in a WebQuest. Creating a WebQuest is not an easy task for the teacher, as we have all seen by trying to create our first WebQuest. But experience is a great teacher, so I am sure that we will soon become more skilled in creating WebQuests for our students.

           At the end of this week we are richer for new knowledge and new experience in using technology for enhancing our students learning and creating opportunities for developing their communicative, problem-solving, decision-making and other higher-level skills.