What is it?
Questgarden is a self-described "incubator" for student-centred learning tools. It is a guide to and builder of Webquests, which are task-based lesson websites for students to explore. Webquests seem to be the offspring of course websites, but instead of organizing general information about a course for students, they are sites entirely created for one lesson or project.
How would I use it?
Having not used Webquests myself, I've consulted with several language teachers who have, and their enthusiasm is quite high. There is a kind of catch-and-release trend in education these days, which promotes heavy initial preparation and scaffolding from the teacher to ideally yield maximum autonomy from the students in the form of exploring topics in groups. It seems to have worked well in many language classrooms.
Speedbumps?
The site design is not inspiring. The layout is off-centre, dated, and meh. My concerns for language learning with the Webquest approach can be boiled down to mixed level lopsided participation and the complexities of teacher interference and assessment. However, this post was intended to evaluate Questgarden, and other than tiny text and generally shabby design, I find this website extraordinarily useful, particularly for pre-service teachers or pre-digital natives like myself. How did you find it?
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