Friday, September 25, 2009

What would Socrates say?

Would Socrates approve of WebQuests? After all, wasn't it Socrates that said, "The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance". No, I do not believe that Socrates would approve of WebQuests. Socrates believed that evil should be avoided at any cost. He was a moral rationalist and a naturalist. Even though much good can come from the knowledge a student can acquire using WebQuest, at its very root is the Internet itself, a virtual cesspool of evil thoughts, words, and actions. Most of the time one does not even have to look for it to find it. I believe Socrates, like myself, would prefer to have students gain knowledge the old fashioned way-by putting out a whole lot of effort and not taking the easy path to find all of the answers. Our reliance on computers these days is staggering and sometimes frightening.
As far as my WebQuest goes, If I had to assign a taxonomy to it I would say it more closely resembles the Creative Product Tasks, although certain features of the other tasks may be included therein.

1 comment:

  1. Ahhhh! I enjoy this perspective and agree with you on many levels. But isn't a WebQuest a good way to subvert the evil and teach kids how to use the Internet in a productive way? I appreciate your thoughtfulness in answering this question!

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