But learning to use the technology is not the goal. Barry knows that the technology will change many times before his students see the workplace. Instead he spends his time teaching them to interview, write, check and recheck sources. But what is most important is the relationships that develop between the students and other adults in their community. The ThinkQuest Internet Challenge offers a different structure for organizing learning that is modeled on group project development common in today's business world.
Students tackle the problem of teaching a subject or skill to their peers.
Team building is an important part of the process and this contest rewards diversity of perspectives so team members often come from different countries or bring very different background experiences to the group. The team finds coaches and works on a time line to bring their knowledge products to completion using Internet tools for both communication and design. The sites are made available on the Internet and the designers are challenged to locate, inform and support a community of learners to use their sites for learning. This process is the final part of the contest. The students compete for college scholarships but there are many more winners than the finalists.