Zunal | Mistakes, Mystery and Making a Mess...

The first WebQuest I checked out was entitled “Past Works of Art Influencing the Present Artist.”

I was really looking forward to this WebQuest as Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists and I thought the concept of the project sounded very intriguing. But unfortunately, I was rather disappointed.

OVERALL DESIGN: 1

The site is labeled, but not what I would refer to as ‘clearly.’ If I didn’t scroll down, I wouldn’t have known that what the teacher was referring to was in the links below the information. Not all of the links worked and I felt that there was a certain lack of understanding to the entire assignment. Good idea, but I did not find it to be compelling.

WEBQUEST EASE OF USE/CLARITY OF INSTRUCTIONS: 1

The site was easy enough to follow, but lacked good explanation. If I hadn’t kept scrolling down in hopes of more explanation, I wouldn’t have known that the links to assist the students were at the bottom. Some of the links did not work and there were a few grammatical errors (cringe).

USE OF H.O.T. : 1

Yes, there was research to be done, information to be written down, and a project to be completed – but, I think it all felt very disconnected and haphazardly. The project, which was 60% of the final grade, was the least discussed! I am all about letting creativity be open and free, but It lacked a basic structure or guide to what the teacher expected the students to complete. I was also confused by the title and how it correlated with the overall assignment. Collaboration was only between student and teacher.

TOTAL: A very generous 3

The next WebQuest that I chose to examine was titled “Life Drawing: Multiculturalism.”

http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=226480

Again, I was curious about the title and the lesson that it held for the students.

OVERALL DESIGN: 1.5

The site was nice and laid out in an orderly fashion, but I felt a real disconnect with the ‘sense of purpose.’ The title states ‘Multiculturalism’, yet this assignment had nothing to do with culture and was instead geared towards a very positive message about our definition of beauty and body image. The images used were figure drawings (although not multicultural or even multi-ethnic) and the site creator used a picture of the web page where the students were to go and draw, so they knew they were at the right site. I have to mention, again, a few grammatical errors were found on this site as well (cringe, again).

WEBQUEST EASE OF USE/CLARITY OF INSTRUCTIONS: 1.5

All of the links operate and I do like that the author states where the links are found. The only concern I had about this WebQuest, is that it does involve nude figuring drawing. I am a huge fan of drawing the nude human form, but 9-12 graders and a brief mention on the site to ask mom and dad first before choosing to draw nudes…? I guess it depends on the maturity level of the class and the teacher would know that better than I, but it does seem like a bit of a red flag for the teacher to not gain a permission form from parents and then to not have control over the option of clothed or nude images that they draw from.

USE OF H.O.T.: 2

I really like where this site creator’s ideas where going with the human body in all its beautiful and different forms along with tying in the need to work on self-esteem issues through art. The students were expected to write up a report about their opinions of the images they viewed, bring their work into class for discussion, collaborate/critique with peers, and their upload work and critique to the class Facebook page. Clearly stated expectations of assignment, although brief (not really feeling an impact) and the title is misleading.

TOTAL: An optimistic, yet confused 5

And for the final WebQuest I reviewed, “Surrealism and Photoshop Mania.”

http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=213581

OVERALL DESIGN: 1.5

At first, I was going to give this site a two because of all the helpful PowerPoints and nice imagery, but then when I went back through and cut through all the visual niceties, it all became a little excessive. Visually appealing, all the links worked, but it lacked an overall organized flow. I just really wish all of the WebQuests that I reviewed had a better transition from one page to the next.

WEBQUEST EASE OF USE/CLARITY OF INSTRUCTIONS: 1

I really hesitated to give this site a 2 or even my middle of the road 1.5. It was excessive in instruction – the written assignment was on the ‘Famous Artist Page’ and then the same (?) or another written assignment on the ‘Process’ page and then the Photoshop assignment was on the last couple of pages of the PowerPoint on the ‘Process’ page and then again on the ‘Task’ page. I felt like the ‘Task’ page could have been organized better and the rubric was a bit confusing. The site creator did include some awesome links to help the students with the Photoshop assignment and the PowerPoints were informative.

USE OF H.O.T.: 1.75

The students were expected to read the articles, check out the PowerPoints, answer questions, analyze artwork and form opinions, and create artworks. I did not find any particular points in this site where collaboration of the site or even in the classroom (critique), which I find to be very important in some area (if not all) of the analysis, synthesis and creation portions of art class. Minimal cringing as there were very few grammatical errors.

TOTAL: A discombobulated 4.25

VIDEO REVIEWS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4rel5qOPvU

After watching this video, I went to the site, WebQuest.org and was disappointed to find that their search option was not working so I was unable to review other WebQuests as the video suggested. One of the guiding thoughts behind my reviews of the above WebQuests was that in the YouTube video, it mentions that the WebQuests are “inquiry-oriented lessons” in which you can “ask important questions about your content area.” I think it was because of this statement that I was rather let down by the WebQuests that I did review because I don’t feel that they asked questions, but instead used their sites as another way to present a lesson to their class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyht-ehlAWY

This second video discusses how using a WebQuest requires Higher Order Thinking for not only the student, but also for the teacher as they design the WebQuest. Which is one of the reasons I didn’t mind including that there were grammatical errors in all of the WebQuests that I looked at. (I mean, c’mon. We are teachers. We should proofread and edit our work before presenting it to our students…IMO.) Next the video discusses how to go about building a WebQuest beginning with figuring out the task and how you are going to design your WebQuest around it. I wish the sites that I had looked at had spent more time doing this, because I think their ideas would have been better expressed if they had spent more time figuring out how to properly arrange the site. (She boldly states while never designing a WebQuest site herself. Yet…)