This week, I introduced my undergraduate pre-service teachers to WebQuests.  We browsed the database and spent some time critiquing them, looking for those that supported collaborative work and critical thinking.  The students found several that they felt were useful, but we were often frustrated by broken links or outdated information.

The curriculum for my class is bulging and I worry about it being, as they say, a mile wide and an inch deep.  Keeping that in mind, I began reflecting on my inclusion of WebQuests.  Maybe they could be exorcised or simply included as a mention along with other education-based websites, rather than spending most of a class period discussing and critiquing them.   I have already cut back somewhat on WebQuests since when I inherited that class some six years ago, creating a WebQuest was always the final project.  I dropped that requirement a few years ago although it is still an option if students wish to create one.  I usually have at least one group of students who create one for their final project.  They generally do a good job of creating student-centered quests that support collaboration, self-motivation, and construction of knowledge, the hallmarks of this particular instructional tool.

I put my question–are WebQuests “old” technology–to my twitter group this afternoon and got some interesting answers.  At least one or two suggested that they are no longer using WebQuests in their school divisions.  There were similar concerns to the ones my students expressed: WebQuests were created, used and then never revisited and some of them were only glorified scavenger hunts.   But, one person asked the essential question: if they support authentic learning, then aren’t they still valid and worthwhile?

It seems I am not the only person asking this question.  I spent some time exploring the WebQuest website and ended up at the online community.  The first thing I discovered was our Twitter conversation or at least parts of it.  The next thing I discovered was that Bernie Dodge himself, creator of the WebQuest, was pondering the same question.  Bernie asks, “What’s the link (if any) between WebQuests and Web 2.0? Are they apples and oranges? Incompatible? Complementary?”  The comments suggest that, at least for those who are part of the WebQuest community, they are complementary and that WebQuests could be enhanced through the incorporation of Web 2.0 tools.  It seems reasonable to me.  If it is a powerful learning framework, it should be able to be extended to take advantage of new technologies. One of my tweets provided a link to this article by Tom March about WebQuests and Web 2.0 that would make a good starting point for thinking and discussion.

Meanwhile, I would encourage all of us who created WebQuests in their heady early days to revisit them, not just checking links (although that would be very helpful) but also considering possible updates in terms of research, collaboration and publication in light of all that has happened in the past 13 years since they were introduced.