Internet scavenger hunt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Internet scavenger hunt is a learning activity in the form of a scavenger hunt. It is often used as tool for teaching students how to search the Internet and how to use the resources and information available on the Internet.
An Internet scavenger hunt is a fact-finding exercise where students answer a list of questions or solve problems as they practice information seeking skills. A hunt can serve as a powerful tool to introduce the study of a new subject or to supplement the exploration of various sides of an issue.
Although hunts frequently move from web site to web site, some direct a student's exploration of a single, content rich site. The single site strategy is employed to introduce users to the elements of a highly sophisticated site like the Library of Congress site, the government site Thomas or the Smithsonian site. This permits the teacher to highlight the key areas of a web site.
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[edit] History
The first Internet Scavenger Hunt was developed in 1992 by Rick Gates. He was a library science student at University of California. He created the hunt to encourage adults to explore the resources on the Internet.[1] Gates distributed the questions to various Usenet newsgroups, LISTSERV discussion lists, and Gopher and FTP sites. He offered a prize for successful completion. As time went by he developed themed and then highly challenging hunts like researching a single email address.
[edit] Levels of sophistication
Beginner hunts are highly directive taking the user via a link, to the specific web page. A moderately challenging activity takes the user to a web site that has the answer to a posed question and requires them to choose an appropriate link, use the site map, or site search engine to locate facts that support their answer. The most sophisicated activity may post several open ended questions that require the student to make many choices including search tool and method, web sites and finally the correct supporting information.
Hunts offer several advantages to using the Internet with younger web users. Since the developer chooses the web pages and links directly to them, this minimizes the risk of students being exposed to inappropriate material. With the student's web interaction highly scripted, misdirection by ads or video can be controlled.
Instructors can target the rigor of the activity to challenge students by varying the level of abstraction of questions as defined by Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Relevance of instructional material may be addressed by using Internet based news resources to infuse current events into the lesson.
A well developed scavenger hunt that is based on a novel enriches literature studies. It harnesses online resources to extend exploration of the setting and the plot. Highlighting historical references and lending insight through author study are also possible.
Having students create an Internet fact hunt about a subject is one method for developing higher order thinking skills while reflecting knowledge and developing technology skills.
[edit] Benefits
The use of online resources for instruction and research takes advantage of widely available access to the hunt and the site(s) to which it is linked. This diminishes the need for extensive investments in print resources that quickly become outdated or irrelevant. A single book can be used by only one student at a time. A single web page can be accessed by millions. Typos and misinformation in print materials are there until the next printing. Typos or erroneous information on web pages are easily remedied in a matter of minutes.
Many educational hunts are posted on the Internet permitting users worldwide to use the activity. Hunts can also be crafted in some word processing software and run from the individual computer desktop. Some developers are providing hunt activities in pdf (portable document format). This provides for a more consistent product appearance when printed. Links embedded in pdf documents are active on computers that have access to the net.
Hunts are different from a webquest since the emphasis is on facts and finding information while webquest is inquiry-oriented activity that demands that students go beyond fact-finding.
[edit] References
- ^ Kozma, Tom, "The Internet Hunt", Info Tech News Issues, Wayne State University. Feb 1997.
