Hi Edoardo,
You are absolutely right - LAMS can accommodate the steps of a WebQuest quite easily. But, I have found there is a big advantage to doing a WebQuest within LAMS. Using LAMS allows you to be able to mark the “process”, as well as the “product” of the WebQuest. I found this encouraged each of the students to work throughout the whole project, rather than just let one person write the group submission at the end. For example, while in their groups, the students can discuss the issues using the online forum or chat, discuss the necessary elements of the submission, refine their submission, and then submit their file. All the discussion and chat is saved in Monitor and this provides the teacher with a much more comprehensive view of how well each member of the group contributed to the whole process throughout the project.
Additionally, by using the new branching tool, the groups can be provided with only the URLs that are specific to their group. This should also save some confusion and should streamline the WebQuest process even further.
I love teaching with WebQuests and I always introduced my young high school students to Ancient History by using "King Tutankhamun: Was it murder?" from the Webquest.org database (http://www.pekin.net/pekin108/wash/webquest/). If you haven’t seen it, you might like to take a look – it’s a great illustration of how ancient history can be controversial and it demonstrates how our knowledge of it is still being refined.
Posted by Leanne Cameron
