The webquest activity was very enlightening and helpful. I learned a lot of things in that activity especially in having a particular role or viewpoint when I visited the recommended sites. It gave me the experience to work with classmates from distant places for the first time. It also allowed me to look at myself as a member of the group with a specifically different role to fulfill.
Performing the role of an Attitudinist (which was about higher level thinking in the webquest activity) was not easy particularly because it was new to me. I felt like I was placed in a different world with a different way of looking at things. Even though it was hard to do it, I was able to adjust my feelings, thoughts and observations after collaborating with my teammates.
Sharing my observations to my teammates made me fully satisfy the role and function of an altitudinist. Others on the group, I think, felt the same way, too. Our collaboration made it possible for us to come out with a final assessment of the work we had to do as an affiliator, efficiency expert, technopile and altitudinist. I felt that we were just like each part of the brain performing our respective functions for the accomplishment of the whole organ’s purpose for being.
The collaboration and discussion phase of the assignment was really valuable to each one of us on the team. It gave us a very good opportunity to analyze and or reconcile our thoughts and viewpoints: why we were different in our roles and observations and why there was a need for us to see the activity as a whole team.
I am absolutely inspired by this activity because it’s an activity that can be done within and outside the classroom. It can be neatly organized and done by a few students especially in a particularly large class. Different but related resources on the web can be interconnected or linked to provide students a comprehensive yet subject- specific educational activity. It is something that can be turned as real project for our F.I.S. IB-ITGS (information technology in a global society) students and those in science, social studies and other courses of study. Besides being a good way to begin or end a lesson, it also allows students to work together with specialized roles and ways of thinking for a common purpose.
-Rafael Ablong
