«WebQuest»: orixes

Para abordar este apartado, non atopamos mellor xeito de facelo que reproducindo un fragmento dunha entrevista feita por Linda Starr para a páxina web Education World (2000) a Bernie Dodge, o seu xa mencionado creador:

«– Education World: Would you describe briefly how and why you developed the WebQuest model? Did you start with a goal? a need? an inspiration?

– B. Dodge: It started [1995] with a course I was teaching for second-semester student teachers. I wanted them to learn about an educational simulation called Archaeotype, but I didn't have a copy of the software or the means to show it. So instead, I put together an experience in which they worked in groups attacking a pile of different information sources about Archaeotype that I had lined up: a few pages of an evaluation report on the project, a few Web sites that described the software and the constructivist philosophy behind it, a virtual chat with one of the developers in New York, and a room-based videoconference with a teacher who had tested the program. The task was to divvy up these sources, integrate the information, and decide whether, and how, the Archaeotype program could be used at the inner-city school at which they were student teaching.

– Education World: Was the lesson successful?

– B. Dodge: It was great! Having done my part ahead of time by organizing the resources, I had to speak very little during the two hours they worked on it. I enjoyed walking around and helping where necessary and listening to the buzz of conversations as students pooled their notes and tried to come to a decision. The things they were talking about were much deeper and more multifaceted than I had ever heard from them. That evening I realized that this was a different way to teach -- and that I loved it!

– Education World: How long did it take you to develop the WebQuest format?

– B. Dodge: A few weeks later -- pretty much all in one sitting -- I put together a template, set up in the same way I had done the Archaeotype lesson: introduce the situation, list some information resources, give them a task that required grappling with the information, lay out the steps on what to do with the information, and then bring it to a conclusion. I used a search engine to look around for various names to give this way of teaching and soon settled on “WebQuest”. At that time (February 1995), there were no pages with that word to be found. My students used my template to create their own interdisciplinary lessons. Soon after, Tom March used the structure to develop Searching for China, as part of his work for Pacific Bell's Education First initiative. I wrote Some Thoughts About WebQuests, an article for a distance education newsletter, and suddenly the idea began to catch on. That is how it all began.»