Examining a WebQuest using the engaged learning indicators

My thoughts on the "Back to School Shopping" WebQuest by Andrew Grinnen
http://questgarden.com/96/66/2/100220094637/index.htm

WebQuests are used in classrooms all around the world to provide students with engaging, technology-rich lessons that achieve curricular goals. This WebQuest challenges students to pick out the perfect back-to-school pair of jeans based on price and quality. In an interesting twist, one of the students is the "son/daughter" and another is the "mother" so they must consider their unique priorities in these roles while they search for jeans online. In the end, they each choose 5 pairs of jeans and then decide which is the best value (price/quality) after doing some statistical analysis (mean, median, mode).

I selected this WebQuest because I think it does a nice job of requiring students to use their math skills in a real-world, engaging problem. I could really see some of the students getting excited about shopping for jeans online in math class. Also, the ease of following the instructions while searching for different jeans would allow students to work virtually independently while the teacher could focus on assisting students with special needs and monitoring their on-task behavior.

One area of concern I have with this WebQuest is with the third student job, the "recorder." This student overlooks the "son/daughter" and "mother" to make sure they don't pick any of the same 5 pairs of jeans. Then, they are responsible for doing the calculations after all data has been collected. It seems to me that many of my 6th and 7th grade students would not do well in this job due to the unstructured downtime they have in the computer lab as the other students search for information on the jeans. Perhaps the author could give the recorder another duty while in the computer lab such as beginning to work on the layout of the poster that will be used in the final presentation.

There were significant elements of engaged learning technologies evident throughout this WebQuest. One key element of this WebQuest is that it requires significant collaboration between the three group members. In order for the students to generate their list of ten pairs of jeans from which to choose, they must constantly be sharing information and discussing their reasoning behind each decision that is made. Also, this WebQuest is designed for equitable use regardless of students' levels of ability. A higher-achieving student could use more complex and compelling criteria during the jean selection process, while lower-achieving students could simply focus on price and customer comments regarding quality. Finally, the authenticity of this activity would help energize students, making them more invested in the learning process. These are just a few of the many elements of engaged learning technologies in which this WebQuest excels.

Compared to a typical classroom activity, this WebQuest presents students with a unique and applicable problem to solve. While some math classes still feature the "know-it-all" teacher serving up information to students only to have them regurgitate the same information on a quiz or test, this WebQuest is an example of a way to assess students' mastery of a particular concept (i.e. measures of central tendency) using a motivating, real-world application of the skills they've learned in class. Instead of handing the students a meaningless list of numbers and requiring them to find the mean, median, and mode of the data, the teacher instead presents students with a way to use these skills to improve their ability to become more informed consumers. Frequent exposure to such engaging learning experiences will keep students motivated since they see how their classroom studies apply to their lives outside the school walls.

A means of assessing students' performance on this WebQuest comes in the form of a rubric provided by the author. He outlines the following four key areas used to evaluate students' work: data collection, statistical analysis, poster, and presentation. While the author gives equal weight to each of these components, I would be prone to put a bit more emphasis on the mathematical content. In addition, I might require more skilled students to perform additional calculations such as total costs after tax and hypothetical costs based on sales, discounts, or coupons. Although I might change the weighting of the four components, the author did a nice job of clearly explaining what grade would be earned based on the quality of work completed by the students.

A computer with Internet access, which is the main technology used in this WebQuest, makes the data-gathering process for this problem much more efficient than other means. Also, the web-browsing process is much more in-line with how today's teens shop for jeans (as opposed to looking through print ads). Technology must engage students in a way that generates their interest while still enhancing the learning process. I feel that this WebQuest does a nice job of pulling in the students and getting them interested in creating a quality end-product while applying some important math along the way.