Webquest 101 – Putting Discovery into the Curriculum

• Check the URLs – A site’s URL can tell you a lot about the quality of the content it might contain. College and university sites typically end in .edu and can often be a great source of accurate information. For K-12 teachers, other schools’ pages are often a useful resource. These sites often end in .k12.us.

• URLs which include a tilde "~" near the end are typically personal sites. In a college or university site, they may have been created by students or faculty, and it’s wise to be sure whether you’re looking at a scholar’s work or a freshman’s project. This is even more the case with personal pages posted on other sites like Geocities or other large Internet providers. While some of these "labors of love" can contain highly credible information, others are apt to be less reliable. Review these with extra care.
  
  
• Check member sites and questionable sources. Some urls indicate that they are created by “members” or “users”, such as urls that include aol, tripod, comcast, the word members, angelfire, and other free web page services. Always check “about this site” to see who created it, and make sure it is not from an 8th grader. Similarly, wikipedia can be written by anyone. Though their content is often quite accurate, offering it as a “reliable” source is not teaching your students to evaluate their sources. About.com lists of links are collected by self-nominated “experts” who collect sites for about.com. The credentials of these experts are never provided (and the lists usually include annoying pop-ups and advertising).

• What’s the Site’s Intent? – For whom was the site originally created? A civil war site designed for military historians might be interesting to your fourth graders, but its emphasis probably won’t match yours. Be sure that your sources deal with your topic in a way that fits your own needs.

• Check the Reading Level – Many sites written for general audiences may frustrate younger readers. Use this web-based tool to check web site readability.
  
  Open TWO windows on the internet: one for possible web sites and one with this tool, ready to go. Simply copy and paste the URL (web address)from the address bar when you are looking at the web page you want students to use. Paste it into the space on this site and click "Calculate Readability." Juicy Studio will give you a Gunning Fog Index score and a Flesch-Kincaid Grade level for the web page you provided. Be sure to read the explanations of what these scores mean! Note: This tool does not check an entire SITE, just the actual page you were looking at when you copied the URL. To be sure your students can read the entire site, select a page that is text-intense as the one you "test." As in any content reading book, illustrations, captions, and other graphics will help your students "read" any page, but sometimes they just need to be able to read the words!

• What About Other Students’ Work? – The web is a great way to share student accomplishments. Just remember that posting something on the web doesn’t guarantee its accuracy. The cautions regarding personal pages apply doubly to student projects posted on the web. If you wouldn’t give it a passing grade in your class, why include it in your webquest?

• Dealing with Bias – Sooner or later, you’ll find a site that "takes a point of view" either overtly or in more subtle fashion. Depending on the age of your students, you can either filter this bias in your selection of resources or include sites which have specific points of view. If you introduce diversity of opinions, try to find a way to balance the pros and cons of the issues discussed.