National Art Education Association

Webquests: Utilizing Technology in a Constructivist Manner to Facilitate MeaningfulPreservice LearningAuthor(s): Rina Kundu and Christina BainSource: Art Education, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Mar., 2006), pp. 6-11Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696130 .

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Webquests:

Utilizing Technology in a

fefacilitate Meaningful l?il?n i^S&^i tiM ??gnimitf ii

BY RI?A KUNDU AND CHRISTINA BAIN

Teachers

tend to emulate the teaching styles or methods they were exposed to both a?f

students and as preservice educators (Carter & Sottile, 2002; Johnson, 1991). One of the more

challenging aspects of teaching preservice students at the university level is not only providing these students with the most ;^? current pedagogical theories, but also demon

strating how these various theories translate into actual practice in the art classroom, li^ While traditional forms of teaching, such as lecturing, certainly

enable an instructor to disseminate a body of knowledge fairly

quickly and efficiently, they do not necessarily engage stude? most effectively or authentically in the learning process. Cur?|?|t educational theory (Hanson, 2002; Manery, 2003; Wilkinson,

McNutt, & Friedman, 2003) holds that meaningful learning requires learners to interact with new information in

wt^'p?SS^ enable active inquiry. Students should have opportunities to

construct their own knowledge and to develop their owa

cognitive maps, connecting concepts with meaning making? As students actively engage with learning, they can move to

higher levels of cognition that involve applying, synthesizing, and evaluating knowledge.

Teachers can design webquests to eliminate some of the

traditional obstacles to art-based learning, expanding the types of inquiry that can be undertaken in classes and enabling students to master materials through problem solving and

critical thinking. As teachers and researchers, we are interested

in examining how webquests can nurture authentic forms of

student learning. The purpose of this article is to elucidate the

nature of webquests, explain how and why our program utilizes them in preservice art teacher education, and provide information on how classroom practice can engage students

actively in facilitating meaning making.

Passive Learning Jfest pet teachers have experienced at least one art history

&ot$se^ Jb&dly remembered as "art in the dark," during their college coursework. For decades, this single teaching method

ot?gfl a slide-illustrated lecture, has dominated the teaching of

art history at the university. The methodology often encourages rote memorization and passive learning among students.

Students are moved along with the use of slides and the format

<4lfe|?s little sense of participation or exploration. Looking at

irn|||?s presented through reproductions where art and artifacts are situated out of context collapses differences

berreen art forms.

~ This particular methodology of teaching then gets practiced ; $wi|||b secondary schools. Art educators often use slides and

tm8||nit information to students, discussing artists' intent and

vifejHal qualities of images and artifacts.The social life of things,

l|SB is how people use art and artifacts, disappears. At best,

they explore exercises that require them to know the condi

? ?toDj^ that mediate the use of various principles, including

?^i?icting a visual analysis and comparing and contrasting

?pllits, and little is done in examining objects within contexts and finding interrelationships between objects and cultures.

;jS|j^ernet resources, however, can connect art to its social

gSHIces. Students can talk to people in communities beyond ? l?iff own environments to discover alternative ways of

knowing. Through virtual field trips they can look at objects within contexts and see how they are used. Such field trips can

be an important educational tool for facilitating a spatial under

standing versus a linear understanding of objects. Webquests

using Internet resources enable the production of knowledge

through inquiry. Furthermore, webquests change instruction

and involve students in the social practices of art.The

instructor works as "a guide on the side" instead of the

authority figure standing in front of the classroom.

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Preservice Learning

What is a Webquest? First, let us clear up some possible misconceptions regarding

the nature of webquests. Although they exist in an on-line

environment, they are quite distinct from other forms of educa

tional technology. For example, PowerPoint presentations are

teacher-centered and mainly linear in direction; on-line treasure

hunts require filling out an answer sheet or finding the "right" answer; and surfing the web may not have an educational

purpose. Although students often find solving webquests to be

fun, unlike on-line games, their purpose is neither for competi tion or entertainment. Furthermore, although students access

on-line resources, they are directed to a selection of specific resources that will enable them to use their time wisely and

efficiently.

To be more specific, webquests are online, interactive

modules that allow students to be involved in inquiry-oriented

learning. A webquest can be thought of as a microworld, where

students explore an issue in a learning environment that is

both cooperative and contextual.Through an in-depth examina

tion of web-based resources, students gather and synthesize information in collaboration with their peers to solve a

problem. While, as a group, students who undertake a webquest interact and work together, each group member carries out a

specific, meaningful role. Webquest roles could include such

varied jobs as art historian, sociologist, anthropologist, and

archeologist. Each role enables students to carry out their

research from a particular perspective. Group members then

pool their respective research findings, bring their newly

acquired knowledge to bear on an issue, formulate a response to a complex, open-ended problem, and propose a reflective

and critical solution. Unlike traditional learning activities, there

can be multiple solutions to the problem in a webquest.

Because the work of a webquest involves cooperative and

collaborative learning, the negotiation of authentic resources,

the active application of researched knowledge, and the

construction of a solution to an open-ended problem, it is a

constructivist effort.Therefore, this type of learning is quite different from learning with PowerPoint or web treasure

While, as a group, students who

undertake a webquest interact and work

together, each group member carries out

a specific, meaningful role. Webquest roles

could include such varied jobs as art

historian, sociologist, anthropologist, and

archeologist

hunts. Although PowerPoint and web treasure hunts integrate

technology into the classroom and enable students to work

actively, they reinforce traditional methods of teaching and

learning?transmitting and memorizing information, and identi

fying and recalling specifics in isolation from a context.

Understanding, however, involves the meaningful application of facts, information, and knowledge within a context.

Complexity, diverse viewpoints, and critical insights characterize

understanding?all of which are enabled through problems

proposed within a webquest.

History and Structure of Webquests The history of the webquest is relatively short. Bernie Dodge

and Tom March developed the original concept in 1995 at San

Diego State University. According to Dodge (1997) a webquest is "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the

information that learners interact with comes from resources

on the Internet, optionally supplemented with videoconfer

encing" (p. 1). Dodge (1997) delineates two different types of

webquests: short-term and long-term.The more commonly

practiced short-term webquest can be completed in one to

three class periods and focuses on the acquisition and synthesis of knowledge.The long-term webquest requires students to

spend one week to one month on the problem and allows

learners to demonstrate an understanding of the material by

creating a product, either on-line or off-line. TheWebQuest Page

(Dodge, 1998), located at http://webquest.sdsu.edu/, receives

more than 1,700 hits a day and is proof that educational

interest concerning webquests is growing.

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1 Typically, webquests contain several of the same compo ;nts. Dodge (1997) contends that webquests should include e following: an introduction, a task, information sources, a

process, some guidance, and a conclusion.

1. An introduction that sets the stage and provides some

background information.

2. A task that is doable and interesting.

3. A set of information sources needed to complete the task.

Many (though not necessarily all) of the resources are

embedded in the Webquest document itself as anchors

pointing to information on the World Wide Web. Information

sources might include web documents, experts available via

e-mail or real-time conferencing, searchable databases on the

Internet, and books and other documents physically available

in the learner's setting. Because pointers to resources are

included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace

completely adrift.

4. A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task.The process should be broken out

into clearly described steps.

5. Some guidance on how to organize the information

acquired.This can take the form of guiding questions, or

directions to complete organizational frameworks such as

timelines, concept maps, or cause-and-effect diagrams.

6. A conclusion that brings closure to the quest, reminds the

learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains (Dodge, 1997, p. 1).

Dodge (2001), in collaboration with the San Diego City Schools Education Technology Department, further advocates

the inclusion of a teacher page which would contain informa

tion regarding standards, targeted learners, and suggestions for

teaching the unit. Although not every webquest includes the

exact same components, they indeed have a similar structure.

As von Glaserfeld (1996) explains...

Knowledge is not a collection of

facts but a mapping of actions and

operations that become viable to a

learner's experience. Learning thus

becomes an activity that students

must carry out.

How and Why Does Our Program Integrate Webquests into Preservice Learning?

At the University of North Texas (UNT), our program requires art education preservice students to complete two technology courses:ART 3170: Computers in Art and ART 4830: Technology in the Visual Arts. The first course focuses on the production of art on the computer, while the latter focuses on how technology has changed the nature of teaching and learning. Our students examine webquests1 in the second course and work together as

teams to design one. Usually, students take about 3 to 4 weeks to collaboratively construct the webquest, using a web editor

such as Dreamweaver or Composer .The students include an introduction, a task, a process, an evaluation rubric, and a

conclusion in their webquests. The process section includes

roles for participants to play, Internet resources to be used to

conduct the research, and questions to focus the participants' attention.

We have several teaching goals in mind when we present the

webquest project.

1. We wish to motivate our students to create lessons that

speak to the complexity of art-based learning. Lessons should not be obsessed with learning art skills but must speak to how art enables the production of knowledge in relationship to living in society.

2. We want students to understand how to integrate technology into art-based learning and how technology can enhance

learning and create different types of learning opportunities. What are the pros and cons of constructivist learning? Or

with using technology in a constructivist manner? What are

some of the problems students will face in assessing learning that is supported by technology?

3. We want our students to understand how to address the

needs of diverse learners through technology. We want our

preservice students to design specific cognitive activities that

allow students to produce knowledge from different perspec tives and that utilize different ways of learning. Activities

should be meaningful to not only to preservice teachers but

also their future students, relating back to their worldviews.

4. We wish to enable preservice students to develop their

thinking skills.As future art educators, this is essential. One of our preservice students criticized this project because she

was given "too many options" (personal communication,

April, 2004).Teaching art, however, requires choices, and it is

up to our students to make the best choices for themselves and encourage their future students to do the same.

5. We want our students to learn how to negotiate working

collaboratively. As art teachers they will be part of a school? a team?and it is important for them to practice inter

personal skills.

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?O? Q index

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Figure 1. Introduction page for webquest The Monument Makers by students Andrea Asburn, Catherine Cave, Bill Close, Rebecca Crake, and Kara Shotwell, 2004.

An Example of a Webquest Designed by Preservice Students

Although our preservice students have designed many innovative webquests, here we describe one entitled The

Monument Makers (see Figure 1). Designed for teams of high school students, this webquest begins with a particular scenario: A freak tidal wave has damaged the Statue of Liberty

beyond repair and there is a need for a new public monument.

The webquest then challenges students to create a proposal for

a new public monument for New York City in response to a

competition held by the city to replace the well-known statue.

The monument must speak to New York City's past, present, and future, as well as the nation at large. Participants take on

different roles such as art historian, sociologist, project director, and site organizer to study the history of the monument

building, particularly that of the Statue of Liberty, the values of

the communities existing at the site, fundraising initiatives to

build the monument, the environmental conditions of the site, and the materials needed to construct the monument. Although students carry out different research tasks, they must pool their

knowledge in order to create the proposal. Their final proposal must include a PowerPoint presentation and a design plan that includes two-dimensional sketches and a three-dimensional

model. The proposals are then presented to an audience who

decides which of the projects would be most valuable and

most viable.

What Do We Want to Teach Our Students Using Constructivist Methods?

Among the cognitive learning theories available, construc

tivism and situated learning are most significant to creating an

active art classroom. Constructivism promotes the idea that

learners construct knowledge. As von Glaserfeld (1996)

explains, what sets constructivism apart from other learning theories is its epistemology; in other words, knowledge is not a

collection of facts but a mapping of actions and operations that

become viable to a learner's experience. Learning thus

becomes an activity that students must carry out. According to

Fosnot (1996), constructivism includes such characteristics as

challenging, open-ended investigations in realistic, meaningful

contexts, allowing students to generate their own hypotheses and models as possibilities. We want our preservice students to

facilitate a classroom atmosphere where their students engage in activity and reflection, as they communicate and defend

their ideas. Such an understanding of constructivism is used to

create webquests and the assessment tasks contained within

them. In developing their webquests, preservice students

construct a problem that enables multiple solutions and allows

students to present these to an audience, such as their class

mates, for feedback and evaluation.

Situated learning asserts that enculturation leads to learning.

Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1996) explain that knowledge is

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situated, a product of the activity, context, and culture in which

it is used. Most situated learning theorists advocate for

authentic practices, which place content within context.

Situated learning has it roots in LevVygotsky's ideas about

social development. Vygotsky (1997) notes that understanding is social; the relationship between the individual and a social

context is dynamic.To be human is to be socially situated and

historical.The life space in which we live is inseparable from

we who produce it. So learning leads development.

As noted by Newman and Holzman (1996), understanding must be seen as a relational activity. We do not respond to

stimuli, acquire socially determined and useful skills, and adapt to an environment. We continually transform the circumstances

of our environment, working jointly with it. For example, as

Newman and Holzman (1996) explain, becoming a speaker of

language is not the mere acquisition of a skill or behavior. It is

transformative, opening up new possibilities for the child.

People respond to the child as a speaker even if she does not

have all the credentials.The child becomes a speaker because

she is related to as a speaker. Any tool, including technology, not

only facilitates but also reshapes and transforms experience.

In developing webquests, preservice students participate with their peers in the context of production. Learning is thus

not located within an individual but is placed in the context of

the social. This situated learning experience thus goes beyond the concept of learning by doing, and is considered inseparable from social practice. In the context of webquests, a virtual

environment situates learning. Social interaction and participa tion is the key to learning within this context. Authentic activi

ties are used to stimulate students toward problem solving and critical thinking. Students collaborate, do activities that

facilitate understanding, use ideas central to the discipline of

art, and address concepts and issues in life.Table 1 summarizes

the differences between traditional and constructivist

teaching methods:

Authentic activities are used to

stimulate students toward problem

solving and critical thinking. Students collaborate, do activities

that facilitate understanding, use

ideas central to the discipline of

art, and address concepts and

issues in life.

Table 1 Differences Between Traditional and Constructivist Learning

Traditional Methods Constructivist Methods

Knowledge

Learning

Knowledge is established by others and given to learners.

Is easily measurable, given in bits and pieces. Enables memorization, identification, and recall.

Knowledge is created by learners and shaped by their cultures and values.

Is an organic process; meaningful learning occurs

through reflection and resolution of cognitive conflict.

Student Passive Active

Teacher's role Is a transmitter of knowledge, an authority.

Is a facilitator, a collaborator, and/or a participant.

Teaching Activities

Require demonstrations, lectures, and the reinforcement of habits

during independent practice.

Require problem-solving activities that enable more than one correct answer, reflective thinking, and authentic connections to life and living.

Conclusion As researchers begin to seriously examine webquests, it is

time for art educators to better understand how and why they should consider integrating them into their preservice

programs. We believe that while they learn pedogogical theory,

preservice students must also be required to use it to be fully

engaged. Given a reason to learn, students will learn. As they make sense out of ideas and communicate this synthesis to

others, they are involved in both critical thinking and problem

solving.

At various stages in the development of a webquest, students

make new connections that enrich their production and their

understanding of how to integrate technology into the art

classroom in a constructivist manner. Furthermore, webquests themselves are authentic. Participants work cooperatively and

collaboratively to produce knowledge.They carry out research

from a particular perspective, in relationship to prior

knowledge, reading ability, and mastery.The researched

knowledge individuals bring back to their group is of value

because it furthers the understanding of others.

Our own practice of using webquests has been rewarding. Students report that constructing webquests has engaged their

creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills, and has

enabled them to re-examine the usefulness of technology in the

art classroom. As student Elizabeth Smalling noted,

While a Power Point presentation may complement

instruction, a webquest truly redefines it. In a webquest

activity, students engage in constructivist learning by role

playing and performing independent tasks. By working as

a team with the same goal yet individual tasks, children

experience how it is in a real work place?people, with

differing jobs, working toward one goal, (personal

communication, December 10, 2004)

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Furthermore, as student Alesia Thompson Shaw also explains,

Technology in the form of webquest opportunities allows

students to consume and evaluate multiple representations,

images, and inputs found in their Internet searches. Students

enter a community of thinkers in a diverse ecology of

participation where discussion of ideas can occur with real

people outside of their schoolmates and teachers (Looi,

2000). With the changing organization of ideas and informa

tion that the Web and Internet provide, why would any teacher not want to expose students to this community?

(personal communication, December 13, 2004)

Why indeed.

Rina Kundu and Christina Bain are art education faculty members at the University of North Texas, Dent?n.

E-mail:Kundu@unt.edu or bain@unt.edu

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Brown, J. S., Collins,A., & Duguid, P. (1996). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. In H. McLellan (Ed.), Situated learning

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Carter, W. & Sottile, J. M. (2002, February-March). Changing the

ecosystem of preservice math and science methods classes to enhance students' social, cognitive, and emotional development. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Educational Research Association, Sarasota, FL.

Dodge, B. (1997). Some thoughts about webquests. Retrieved April 29, 2005, from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html

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http://webquest.sdsu.edu/

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EWDN?TE * Before producing a webquest, students have engaged with a number of issues in relationship to teaching and learning with technology, including information literacy, the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, and use information for a problem at hand. Because the Internet is leveled, students investigate how to find trustworthy resources and they build

guidelines that distinguish complex educational resources from those that are less complex. Students have listed such criteria as information

retrieval, interactivity, and publishing capabilities in their evaluation of

"good" websites. As users, they want a voice in the learning process as well as control over their pace through a site.

MARCH 2006 /ART EDUCATION 11

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