For the past three years I’ve started the year with our fourth graders working through the “Welcome to the Web” webquest. The webquest is designed by Mark Warner who has done a phenomenal job creating an interactive tool for students to learn about navigating the World Wide Web in a safe manner.

Mark has divided the information into 7 sections. In addition, he has worksheets for students to fill in as they work through the various parts. What makes this so much fun for the students is that they are earning secret codes as they navigate through each step. The codes are vital in “The Challenge” as the students try to catch the culprit who is trying to infect the town’s computers with a nasty virus.

The webquest takes about 5 days to complete (I see the students for 40 minutes every day). But the kids don’t care – no one has ever complained about it. They are ALL eagerly engaged in the activity. In fact, I always have at least a couple of students who work on this during recess or complete it at home!

This year, as the students finished the webquest, I had them blog about what they had learned and also had them complete a survey.