Techtalk: Developing Academic Literacy through WebQuests

One challenge for college developmental educators is to prepare students to read and write about the texts and genres of higher education, the "academic literacy" discussed by Pugh, Pawan, and Antommarchi (2000). Their discussion notes that, although texts and genres change (most recently to include web-delivered hypermedia), the literate processes of locating, interpreting, and applying ideas gained from reading have remained constant.The wide range of resources on the web, especially primary sources, presents a new instructional opportunity for developing academic literacy skills. In this column we introduce a way to structure student use of the web by using a flexible framework called a "WebQuest. " It is an instructor-created website that sets up a problem or task for students to accomplish and guides their work with specific web-based resources, individually (as in a learning center) or in teams (as in a class). In 1995, Bernie Dodge (2003) developed the "WebQuest" approach with Tom March and established the first collection of online projects. Although we find relatively few reports of WebQuesting with college students, there is strong theoretical support for it. For example, Spiro, Coulson, Feltovich, and Anderson (1994) distinguish between the acquisition of introductory knowledge and advanced knowledge acquisition; WebQuesting engages students in advanced knowledge acquisition processes. Because developmental students often lack basic skills of reading, writing, and computing, developmental instruction can stall at that introductory level. Such a focus may come at the expense of more preparation for the advanced knowledge acquisition required for academic literacy. To nudge students beyond introductory knowledge acquisition into the messy world of multiple texts and primary sources, the WebQuest should require critical thinking, rather than a scavenger hunt for answers.Four Ways to WebQuestWebQuests span a range of topics, but in this column they are categorized by purposes appropriate for college learners. Links to the each of the WebQuests discussed are posted at the college WebQuests site (Peterson, 2003). 1. Course Introduction/Career InvestigationA WebQuest can launch a course to success, especially one that suffers from an image of irrelevance. Anglin has been successful with a WebQuest called Why On Earth Am I Taking Statistics? which culminates in student PowerPoint presentations. She has successfully extended WebQuesting to her prealgebra class with students assuming roles to put algebra on trial. By exploring websites of real-world applications, her students see the relevance of the course (K. Anglin, personal communication, December 16, 2002). 2. InquiryA WebQuest can help students learn to ask good questions about phenomena, thereby apprenticing them to the intellectual stance of academic literacy. Pawan's Creative Problem-Solving: A WebQuest for Advanced ESL Students at the College Level provides a model which can be adapted by using authentic examples on the web for student application of problem-solving strategies. Winemiller's Who built Stonehenge? requires a complex search and sort of information as students take on real-world roles, access primary sources, draw conclusions, and defend their positions to develop theories regarding the origin of Stonehenge. Similarly, in Matko's Outside of the Diary, students write and respond to a Holocaust survivor using the support of question models and guides to question construction.3. Problem-Based Learning (PEL)In PBL, students investigate a problem in the local or larger community and present their results to inform others or pose solutions (Wiggins & McTighe, 2001). Though not limited to web investigations, PBL fits the WebQuest framework. Two representative PBL WebQuests are Burleson's Find a Need and Fill It: A WebQuest for Life-Long Learners and PeaceQuest. The primary multimedia sources available on the web, such as radio and video clips, go beyond print-based uses of the web such as in the WebQuest The Reintroduction of the Wolf into the Southwest, from Pennsylvania State University. …