Tales from the Desh

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What is a WebQuest?

A WebQuest is any student activity that requires research on the Internet as a means of exploring a topic or answering a series of questions. It is a way to encourage students to explore real-world use of English written for native speakers. They often take the form of a list of questions to be answered by conducting a simple web search and can be followed by an evaluation of the information found.

WebQuests are useful for students with limited English proficiency or classes with different proficiency levels because students are allowed to work at their own pace and do not need to understand all of the text they are asked to scan.

An example of a traditional WebQuest would be to send students to the website, for example, of Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurants. The teacher would visit the site beforehand and create a list of questions to answer or facts to locate. The students would work together to find the information and then share what they found later during class.

How does Web 2.0 affect the WebQuest?

With Web 2.0, the Internet has become far more interactive than it was in the 1990s. Instead of using the Internet as only a means of getting information, people can now interact a great deal more and can create content of their own quite easily. Some examples of Web 2.0 include blogs, wikis and social networking sites. In such instances, the users have control over the content.

As stated above, traditional WebQuests for English language students would send them to a particular website to simply gather information. With Web 2.0, however, teachers can now send students on WebQuests where they not only locate information, but can also create it and have it published.

One example is what I call the WikiQuest. Wikipedia.com is the world’s largest encyclopedia and it is entirely created and managed by its users. This means that anyone can create or edit an article on Wikipedia.

In a WikiQuest, the teacher can send students to a particular Wikipedia page in order to find, evaluate, change or add to the information that is posted there. If, for example, there is an article about the students’ home town, they can read it, evaluate it and make changes, deletions or additions as they see fit. If there is no such article, they can create it.

Thus students are using English creatively to evaluate and analyze information, solve problems and create authentic texts for publication. And the topic is one that is of interest and importance to them. In such activities, language is contextualized, skills are integrated and materials are authentic.

Download Handout PDF here.

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