Article Reflection 1

Yoder, M. (1999) The Student WebQuest: A productive and thought-provoking use of the Internet.
Learning & Leading with Technology, 26(7), 6-9.52-53. Retrieved January 8, 2004 from http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/myoder/webquest.pdf


When I had seen the article entitled “The Student WebQuest: A productive and thought provoking use of the Internet,” I was intrigued as to what a WebQuest was, since I was unfamiliar with term. I was surprised to discover that the first WebQuests had been developed in 1995 given that I haven’t heard of WebQuests until 2007. Maureen Yoder, who authored the article, also had some wonderful insights regarding the usage of such a tool in educational process for students. As she stated, “A well-written quest demands that students go beyond fact-finding: It asks them to analyze a variety of resources and use their creativity and critical-thinking skills to derive solutions to a problem. The problem is often “real world”—that is, one that needs a genuine and reasonable solution.” In order for our students to become successful in the technology based world in which they live, it is imperative that they become not only resourceful but also develop their critical thinking skills. The article enabled me to reflect as to how I could employ such a device to be used in my classroom and enhance the students learning experiences. With that in mind, I examined the associated links within the article and found that many of them were dead links. However, I did find Bernie Dodge’s site, WebQuest.Org which enabled me to further my research and interests in the usage of WebQuests in my classroom.