Treasure Hunts & WebQuests

This is an excerpt. The complete article appears in the archives of www.FraserReport.com.

Online treasure hunts and webquests are excellent teaching tools that use technology to enhance learning. Teachers often don’t have to create them from scratch. Thousands are available on the Internet that teachers can adapt to their needs.

In an online treasure hunt, the teacher gives students a question, or questions, and has them go to the Internet for the answer(s). A webquest is similar but more structured so students collaborate and make greater use of higher order thinking skills.

Treasure hunts can be simple: e.g., go to this website and find the dates of China’s Ming Dynasty. Some are complex. “Hunting for Migrant Workers” www.web-and-flow.com/members/awolinsk/migrants/hunt.htm is a complex treasure hunt created by Art Wolinsky, a technology infusion specialist who consults for Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, NJ, and trains teachers to use treasure hunts and webquests. Here is an excerpt from Wolinsky’s introduction:

There are many people in this nation who can’t take advantage of the things you take for granted...the basis of life and the opportunity to seek the American Dream.

Wolinsky provides links to 14 websites where students go to answer 12 factual questions about migrant workers. Then he has them answer a synthesis question:

What are the major problems that need to be addressed in order to solve the problems faced by migrant workers?

Treasure hunts that guide students to use higher order thinking skills like this are close to webquests.

The term “webquest” is used in different ways by different people. It was coined in 1995 by Bernie Dodge, a professor of educational technology at San Diego State University. His aim was to help teachers develop collaborative activities that focus on using information rather than looking for it and that encourage analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Now the term can cover almost any activity that has students go to the Internet for information, including online treasure hunts.

Dodge says the most important element of a webquest is its central question. He recommends using a real world question that honestly needs answering. For example, Tom March, who helped Dodge develop the webquest concept, created a webquest that asks:

What actions should the U.S. take in its policy towards China, considering business, cultural, religious, human rights, environmental, and political issues? www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/China/ChinaQuest.html 

Dodge and March recommend dividing a class into groups and assigning each member a role. In March’s China webquest, groups have 6 members and each takes one of the following roles:

• a business investor
• a museum curator who wants to preserve cultural treasures
• a religious leader whose goal is to encourage spiritual understanding
• a human rights activist
• an environmental activist
• a U.S. senator who balances all the goals.

A webquest’s final product often goes well beyond the classroom. Student teams' answers or solutions can be posted to the Internet, e-mailed to experts who were consulted during the information-gathering stage, or presented to real people for feedback and evaluation. This authentic assessment motivates students to do their best.

 For webquest resources see the complete version of this article in the archives of www.FraserReport.com.