Not all links work. None that I have tested opened in a new page. Which gets very annoying. Some fonts have the "old english" look. Which makes things difficult to read. Ds and Vs look the same, words are difficult to translate. The colors really aren't too bad. Some times the colors would bother the reader. Some of the images were poorly chosen. The best example of this is the Introduction page. Having an actual picture of a Castle just doesn't make sense and can have students confused. The last thing I'd hate to deal with is a student thinking that picture is real...which can happen. The point of the lesson is not blanent. Some of the directions were long winded and confusing. I guarentee students would be turned off by the amount of reading they have to do for the Quest. The Quest requires students to "live life" from multiple levels of Middle Ages hierachy. All of the information is on one webpage. It would have been much smarter to place each role in a seperate webpage. After some hunting, I could find everything I needed to complete the assignment.
While there were not major spelling or grammatical errors, there were some other issues with the mechanics. Some of the links don't work at all. To be fair, the WebQuest was made. The webpages were not really appropriate only because of the different roles (as mentioned previously). The data on the King is the same as the serf. Kind of messed up if you asked me.
Content
Is the lesson grounded in state and/or national standards?
The lesson was, however, covering the National and State standards. This actually is a common lesson. It's usually done just as a role play activity and not using a WebQuest. The content was age appropriate (6th grade and up). The tasks were not that manageable. Mainly because it requires a lot from the students and I personally doubt they would finish in one day. Maybe not even two. The information presented on the page and the links are accurate, but not very appropriate. What I mean by that is some of the links go to extremely long pages. Does the student have to read everthing? How would the teacher know if everything is being read? I get the feeling the teacher gave some "busy work" in these links. The process would help the students accomplish the task, if they ever finished it. It is a inquiry-based lesson. Finally, I really did like the rubric and thought it was fair and accurate in determining students knowledge after the quest.
In my opinion, this WebQuest does not add to the students overall educational experience, because this Quest would turn the students off from learning so much that the teacher would lose any interest the students had.
The lesson was, however, covering the National and State standards. This actually is a common lesson. It's usually done just as a role play activity and not using a WebQuest. The content was age appropriate (6th grade and up). The tasks were not that manageable. Mainly because it requires a lot from the students and I personally doubt they would finish in one day. Maybe not even two. The information presented on the page and the links are accurate, but not very appropriate. What I mean by that is some of the links go to extremely long pages. Does the student have to read everthing? How would the teacher know if everything is being read? I get the feeling the teacher gave some "busy work" in these links. The process would help the students accomplish the task, if they ever finished it. It is a inquiry-based lesson. Finally, I really did like the rubric and thought it was fair and accurate in determining students knowledge after the quest.
In my opinion, this WebQuest does not add to the students overall educational experience, because this Quest would turn the students off from learning so much that the teacher would lose any interest the students had.
Andy,
ReplyDeleteA really great, and visually appeasing critique of a webquest that was not so good. This webquest was set up a little bit different than all the others that I have been accustomed to, and I did not exactly think that this was bad at all. In fact, I rather liked it. With that being said, you are right about the webquest having too much text on one page which consequently blurs the objectives and goals that must be attained. Though the idea of having the students write as if they were actually there is a good one, it is not carried out effectively. This webquest, unlike the other weak ones that others have posted, I think has some potential if some of the necessary modifications can be made.
@JKUZDA, this might be horrible, but I've done field experiences at Campus West and McKinley high school...so a lot of inner city/tough schools. I think that's why I'm all about pictures and no major bodies of text.
ReplyDeletehaha but that's just me.
I kind of agree with John. I like this one. as a matter of fact i like it better than the one I picked out as a good one. Just struck me as being very professional.
ReplyDelete