WebQuest

WebQuest looks like a powerful tool for creating, assigning, and sharing projects. The way that it collects all the different materials for a project - instructions, resource links, tool links, grading rubrics, etc. - is very convenient and can help prevent students from losing part of their paperwork and then not knowing what to do. I do see it as more applicable when the project uses online or computer-based tools (such as video or audio editing) rather than when the projects are primarily research-based. As a Latin teacher, I will likely be assigning research projects (with some sort of creative element) more often than projects which require online or computer-based tools.

In retrospect, the activity which we did about comparing different WebQuests was a very useful exercise. I've looked at several WebQuests about Latin and the Romans, and I've found myself thinking "Oh, this sounds like a really cool activity...but there's almost no teamwork involved. The instructions or grading is unclear. This page is full of typos and grammatical errors - it's hard to read." I've even found a few that were painfully simplistic - essentially an online worksheet covering reading from a website rather than reading from a book. If and when I use a WebQuest in my classroom, I will likely have to create my own, and I will have to put a lot of consideration into how well the activity challenges my students to work together and learn new things about the Romans and their culture.