The Trial 0f President Kennedy

 

 

 This webquest is intended for grade 9.

 

 

Our WebQuest is inspired by the theoretical basis behind WebQuests  provided by Tom March, circa 2003:

"A WebQuest is a scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on the World Wide Web and an authentic task to motivate students� investigation of a central, open-ended question, development of individual expertise and participation in a final group process that attempts to transform newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding. The best WebQuests do this in a way that inspires students to see richer thematic relationships, facilitate a contribution to the real world of learning and reflect on their own metacognitive processes." 1

 

The Web Quest is based on the educational culture where it is accepted that students learn well if they are active in the learning process rather than passive receptors of knowledge. The fact that a WebQuest is described as a "scaffolded" structure immediately leads us to think of Vygotsky and his theory of learning, where students are supported and challenged while being pushed from the threshhold of their present state of development into the next stage, which he called "the zone of proximal development".2

 

The educator, philosopher, and psychologist John Dewey wrote that,�the teacher should be occupied not with subject matter in itself but in its interaction with the pupils present needs and capacities".3.

 

 A good WebQuest is all about that interaction, and that is what we have aimed to provide here.

 

Dewey also wrote that effective inquiry  starts with genuine doubt. 4.

 

In our Web Quest we have tried to start the process of inquiry with some doubt inducing problems: Why paint felons? What is segregation? How would it feel to live in such a society? Even though the students have some resources to draw upon ( one film, one text on a web page), the students at this stage should feel a little confused, unsure of themselves, and do not really have enough knowledge to eradicate doubt . And so the inquiry begins!

 

 Structure of the WebQuest

 

 

 

This web quest is developed in order to develop the students' feeling for and understanding of democracy. John Dewey said that democracy depends on",  not only freer interaction between social groups � But change in social habit � its continuous readjustment through meeting the new situations produced by varied intercourse." 5 

 

This is of course relevant when considering the impact that the Freedom Riders made on the development of democracy in the USA.

 

Another goal is to help the students build up the courage to stand up and participate in debate about their beliefs.

 

The Web Quest activity should enable the students to be focused on the tasks and to interpret the text into a role play. They will in the process learn new vocabulary and practise communacative skills.

 

 

Mind Map

 

In the process of creating this WebQuest, we used Prezzi to create a  mind map which can be seen here: http://prezi.com/8gngx2avvrcu/the-trial-of-president-kennedy/?auth_key=87cd1f456829d42e8bbabcc4a99b9ed7fd19d0bc&kw=view-8gngx2avvrcu&rc=ref-19160730