I am working on putting my webquest together. For this project, I have students exploring the concept of bias in research. I think that the internet is ripe with examples of statistical findings and students will have many options for this exploration. However, as I am working through this process, I find myself thinking about how to use webquests for math classes in general. It is much easier to find tasks for students online for statistics due to its heavy contextual nature. Precalculus (the other class I teach) would be a bit more difficult to use this idea for two reasons. First, the math has notation that poses in barrier to computer applications because it does not translate well onto the keyboard. Sure there are equation editors and math languages such as LaTeX, but those are either awkward or require special training. The other barrier to math webquests is the nature of the math itself. I work extensively with students on real world scenarios and application. For these purposes the web could be useful, but for the mathematical process itself, it would be bait more difficult.
Even as I write this, I am thinking of how a web quest could be used to introduce a new topic or summarize findings from an in class unit. To those ends, webquests can work quite well. I suppose, while the notation still poses a problem, the internet can be used to supplement the raw equations with some authentic meaning.
I must say that this was quite bizarre. I started this blog intending to say one thing and end up saying something quite different. Interesting...
-Michael Coury
I am not a teacher, I am a clinical coordinator for the Radiologic Technology program. I am also thinking about ways in which I can use the web quest assignment for the students clinical requirements. It should prove to be an interesting assignment. The topics you talked about in your post sould like great topics. Good Luck.
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