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Education, Collaboration and the Internet [continued] WebQuests: Promoting Online Research in Art The use of the World Wide Web as a tool for conducting remote research in the classroom opens up new avenues for supporting student learning in art—particularly in the areas of art criticism, art history, and aesthetics. The Web offers instant access to catalogs and archives of many of the world’s major libraries, electronic galleries of professional artwork, the collections of world-class art museums, online art journals and newspapers, art reference services, art professionals, image archives, and much more. With an Internet-connected computer and a Web browser, students can tap into these global resources in combination with local research tools and traditional print resources like the school library and art journals or textbooks when doing research projects for art classes. Students need to learn how to gather information on the Internet and then to synthesize it for class research projects. Allowing students to wander aimlessly through cyberspace consumes valuable classroom time and raises the possibility that they will access offensive or inappropriate materials along the way. One of the best ways to maintain control over the content students access via the Internet and ensure that their online classroom time is well spent in meaningful and guided activities is through the use of WebQuests. WebQuests are designed as classroom inquiry-oriented activities “in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet” (B. Dodge, “Some Thoughts About Webquests,” 1996). They frequently entail collaboration among students within the same classroom who work with partners or in small groups to complete certain tasks. WebQuests make the most of students’ time on the Internet by engaging them in learning activities requiring an array of higher-order thinking skills. These activities typically revolve around six attributes including: (1) an introduction; (2) a “real world” task that is challenging and interesting; (3) a set of information resources needed to complete the task; (4) a description of the process to go through to accomplish the task; (5) helpful pointers or guidance in organizing the information acquired; and (6) a closure activity in which students share and assess what they have learned. Due to its authentic nature and broad applicability, the WebQuest model is one of the most documented strategies for integrating the Web with existing curriculum goals. There are literally thousands of WebQuests available on the Internet covering most subject areas in the school curriculum. The following WebQuests show how this model can be used to promote student learning in art:
To learn more about WebQuests, see the resources listed at the end of this article.
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