Project Based Learning and WebQuest (Week 5)

Dear friends,

Another week has gone so fast, and I am happy to have accomplished my goals. This week we learned about the use of PBL and webQuests in our classes to help the students become autonomous. I had never heard about PBL before this week, but I have to say that I certainly think that the students can benefit with the implementation of it in our schools. One of the aspects I like the mosrt about PBL is that students work together to accomplish a goal. It creates a sense of community in the classroom; the members of the groups play different roles, but everyone is working for the same purpose. I would recommend my colleagues to start using it in the classes.

The second reading this week was about webQuests. I had heard about them, but had no idea how or why to use them. When I first read about them, I thought it was going to be really difficult and time consuming. I was afraid I was not going to be able to use create one or to use them in my classes. But at the end of the week, after checking many sites giving unformation and presenting different webQuests, I decided it was time to make mine. I discovered that it is not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Yes, it is time consuming because you have to think about the different activities and the resources the students are going to use. What I found to be the most difficult part was the evaluation because you have to create your rubric or customize one alredy done.

I also found that there are many WebQuests ready to be used in your classes. You just need to adapt them to your class needs and you do not have to spend too much time creating one. Now I am looking forward to the following weeks to develop our own projects in class.

This is the link to my WebQuest: http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=52088

Cristian