Teaching Modern Greek Literature to Teenagers through a

Collaborative Webquest: Design, Implementation, Evaluation

Aikaterini Maragkou

and Maria Rangoussi

MSc “ICT for Education”, Dept. of Early Childhood Education, University of Athens, 13A, Navarinou str, Athens, Greece

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of West Attica, 250, Thivon str, Athens-Egaleo, Greece

Keywords: Modern Greek Literature, Webquest, ICT Integration, ICT Addition, Collaborative Learning, Junior High

School, Motivation, Educational Design, Evaluation, Learning Outcomes.

Abstract: This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of an innovative, collaborative learning

approach to the teaching of Modern Greek Literature to teenage students of Junior High School. The

proposed method is based on a WebQuest especially designed for this study and aimed to motivate students,

increase their collaborative skills, achieve enhanced learning outcomes and change their attitude towards the

subject of Literature to the positive. An educational intervention is designed and implemented in a Model

Junior High School in Athens, Greece, for comparative evaluation purposes. Two 2nd grade cohorts of

students are taught in parallel the same material with (experimental group) or without (control group) the

use of the WebQuest. Research questions comparatively evaluate ICT ‘integration’ through the WebQuest

as compared to ICT ‘addition’ of more conventional ICT-based assistive tools, along the axes of student

motivation, collaborative skills, learning outcomes and attitude towards a ‘difficult’, unpopular school

subject such as Literature. Experimental results show that the proposed approach of ICT integration using

the WebQuest effectively promotes student motivation, collaborative skills and attitude towards the subject;

no significant improvement is detected, though, as to the learning outcomes achieved – an issue that

deserves further research, as discussed in the conclusions.

1 INTRODUCTION

While Information and Communication Technologies

(ICT) establish their presence in modern education

systems worldwide, the educationally and

pedagogically appropriate ways of incorporating ICT

in daily school practice remain open to research to

this day. Educational innovations are judged along

two axes of quality: students should learn ‘better’ and

should enjoy the process at the same time. Today it is

generally agreed that blended learning is

advantageous over purely conventional or purely

electronic learning (Garrison and Kanuka, 2004). The

degree to which the quality of the educational event is

affected by (a) the ‘additive’ use of ICT as an

assistive tool for the teacher, as compared to (b) the

holistic or ‘integrative’ use of ICT as a tool for

implementing multidisciplinary learning, however, is

not so clear. The additive use of ICT tends to be the

rule in education because it does not require any

major shift of position or change of method from the

teacher’s part; rather, it is easily inserted in the

teacher’s habitual teacher-centered strategy where

ICT plays the role of yet another attractive tool,

certainly fancier than books, maps and black- or

white-boards. The ‘hype’ generated this way will

soon deflate, though, if the new tool is not made part

of a carefully designed, integrative teaching/learning

plan based on authentic, learner-centered activities.

Research findings indicate that inappropriate,

superficial use of ICT in class is worse than no use at

all (Hennessy et al., 2005). One major goal of the

research presented here is to experimentally compare

ICT integration against ICT addition along specific

axes: motivation of students, collaboration in group

work, learning outcomes attained and attitude towards

the subject taught. The subject selected as the test-bed

is that of Modern Greek Literature, as taught to

teenage students in Junior High School, and the

learning strategy of choice is the incorporation of a

WebQuest implemented in a collaborative learning

scenario, as detailed in the following.

200

Maragkou, A. and Rangoussi, M.

Teaching Modern Greek Literature to Teenagers through a Collaborative Webquest: Design, Implementation, Evaluation.

DOI: 10.5220/0007799902000207

In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019), pages 200-207

ISBN: 978-989-758-367-4

2 ICT AND LITERATURE

The motivation for this study comes from the double

observation that (a) the school subject of Literature is

not popular among teenagers, who tend to ascribe

their poor performance to the conventionality of both

the subject per se and the instruction methods

employed, while (b) thanks to ICT, Literature outside

school is undergoing a series of transformative

changes. Would the introduction of ICT in the

didactics of Literature render it an attractive subject

and allow student to benefit in multiple ways from

their interaction with it – and if yes, under what form

should this be implemented?

As to the first part of this observation, existing

studies at the national level, e.g., (Greek Ministry of

Education, 2009) as well as the relevant experience of

the first author as a teacher of Literature in high

school, are in line with similar observations coming

from international reports and publications on

education, e.g., (Ajayi, 2015; Clarke, 2013; Doering

et al., 2007; Schrijvers et al., 2016). Within the formal

K-12 education system in Greece, in particular,

Modern Greek Literature is the school subject that has

until recently held out against the introduction and use

of ICT in class. Concepts and beliefs that demote ICT

to the level of a mere tool as compared to the greater,

everlasting value of the literary texts have often

served as the grounds for this policy.

As to the second part of this observation, the last

couple of decades have witnessed an interesting

convergence of ICT and Literature, expressed in the

new concepts and forms of e-literature, cyber-

literature, hyper-literature, digital or web or

computer literature. Each of these neologisms sheds

light on a different aspect of the convergence; taken

together, they emphasize the fact that digital

technologies, multimedia and the Internet are

essential elements to the conception, writing, reading

and publishing of modern Literature. Today,

Literature is undergoing a number of significant

transformations, the non-linear constructs, blogging,

fan-fiction and transmedia storytelling being the most

evident ones. The hope to attract new readers from

among new target groups re-emerges, backed up by

the attractiveness, availability and portability of the

new media, devices and technologies.

Teenagers have always been a ‘tough’ target

group for Literature, either in or out of the school

class. Modern education has now a strong weapon in

the forms of hyper-literature and ICT-enabled practice

to reverse this situation.

3 RESEARCH METHODS &

TOOLS

3.1 Research Outline

An educational intervention has been designed for the

purposes of this research and has been carried out

comparatively, in two cohorts of Junior High School

students of the 2

grade. The experimental group has

participated in a WebQuest that was set up within the

curriculum of Literature and was designed as an open,

realistic, collaborative activity intended to integrate

ICT in the learning process. The same course contents

were taught to the control group conventionally,

through handouts and collaborative assignments; in

that case, ICT has served as an assistive tool (students

watched presentations, videos, etc.).

Research questions investigate (i) the motivation

of the students, (ii) the level and quality of their

collaboration, (iii) their attitude towards this course,

and (iv) the learning outcomes achieved in the subject

taught. Practical issues also evaluated refer to the

quality of the particular WebQuest, its suitability for

the target group, and the feasibility of the employed

learning scenario within the limitations of the

Curriculum.

Evaluation has been performed on the basis of

data collected before, during and after the

intervention, from (i) students in both groups,

experimental and control, (ii) two non-intervening

teachers-observers, and (iii) twelve (12) other teachers

who volunteered to evaluate the WebQuest and the

learning scenario off-line.

The tools used for data collection include: (i) the

IMMS questionnaire of Keller (see section 4.4 below)

to measure the motivation of students, (ii) a custom

questionnaire composed by the teacher, to measure

the level of collaboration and the reception of the

intervention and the WebQuest, (iii) the students’

group projects during the intervention and their

individual projects after that, along with a post-test

delivered by the teacher in class, to assess the learning

outcomes, (iv) the observation sheets prepared by the

teacher and completed by the two teachers-observers,

along with their interviews held by the teacher a-

posteriori, as to the deployment of the intervention

and the interaction among students, (v) the forum of

the WebQuest platform itself, through which the

twelve (12) volunteering teachers evaluated off-line

the WebQuest design, structure, contents and overall

quality.

Results indicate a clear positive impact of

integrative ICT use (experimental group, WebQuest)

as compared to the additive ICT use (control group)

Teaching Modern Greek Literature to Teenagers through a Collaborative Webquest: Design, Implementation, Evaluation

201

on all research questions except the one on learning

outcomes: there, the two groups attain comparable

results – an interesting finding that certainly

deserves further research, analysis and discussion.

3.2 Webquest: A Collaborative Tool

The WebQuest, first introduced in 1995 by B. Dodge

and T. March in SDSU, California, USA, is an

effective alternative learning method that engages

students in well-designed activities towards clear and

meaningful educational/learning targets, (Dodge,

1997). WebQuest is essentially a guided inquiry on a

given problem or question, it falls, therefore, into

problem-based or inquiry-based learning. Progress

relies on data retrieved from sources that are chiefly

electronic (the web); these are processed by the

learner who constructs new knowledge and meaning

and synthesizes answers.

The term ‘quest’ refers to a game or entertaining

activity; indeed, WebQuests are set up as

collaborative activities, where learners are required to

work in (possibly competing) teams to complete the

task set. This collaborative feature is considered as

one of the major advantages of a WebQuest.

WebQuests are therefore doubly founded on cognitive

and on social constructivism (Kachina, 2012). What

differentiates a WebQuest from other Internet-related

educational activities is that (i) it stimulates in the

learner mental processes of a higher level, such as

critical thinking and analytic / synthetic thinking,

while (ii) it promotes learner-centered, authentic,

realistic and attractive learning activities, carefully

(Richards, 2005). Ever since its first appearance

around 1995, the WebQuest has been considered as

an ideal example of effective incorporation of ICT in

Education and has maintained its popularity up to

now (Abbitt and Ophus, 2008).

In practice, a WebQuest may be a short-term (2-4

hours) activity or a long-term (1-2 months) project; by

its context and plot, it falls into one of twelve (12)

major classes (mystery, reporter, creative, scientific,

etc.). It is structured into six (6) phases: Introduction,

Task, Process, Resources, Evaluation and Conclusion.

A teacher’s webpage is often launched afterwards, to

share material and instruction plans with colleagues.

The teacher’s role is to design the WebQuest, set the

educational/learning targets, assign tasks, facilitate the

learning process and keep learners focused, and

eventually make sure results are evaluated and

presented/published. For a successful WebQuest,

Dodge (2001) advices teachers to ‘FOCUS’: ‘Find

great sites; Orchestrate learners and resources;

Challenge learners to think; Use the medium;

Scaffold high expectations’.

3.3 Motives, Motivation and Learning

The role of motives in education and learning is

explained through the theories of Piaget, Erickson and

Bandura. Given the importance of motives in

leveraging knowledge and learning, (Ames and

Ames, 1991; Covington, 1992), a variety of strategies

has been proposed to develop and sustain motives in

learners. Keller’s ARCS (Attention – Relevance –

Confidence - Satisfaction) model directly connects the

motivation of the learner to the design of the

educational event carried out by the teacher (Keller,

2010). A critical point is that Satisfaction is

guaranteed through internal rewards, external rewards

and equity for all. Keller’s model has been validated

on CSCL scenarios, as a tool both to design and to

evaluate a motivating learning event. In the present

research, it is exploited in both these capacities, along

the model’s ‘define-design-develop-evaluate’ cyclic

path.

4 EDUCATIONAL

INTERVENTION AND

EVALUATION

4.1 Design and Development of the

‘Stories of Refugees’ Webquest

The award-winning juvenile novel ‘Birds on the

snow’, by author Toula Tigka (2006, in greek) has

been selected as the literary text for the WebQuest,

after extensive search by the teacher (first author). It

features juvenile heroes in a realistic situation (a

refugee adopted by an elderly lady and going to

school in the host town), it includes a puzzling

element (‘what might a bird be scribbling on the

snow?’) that lends itself nicely to a WebQuest, it is

free of social stereotypes and conveniently structured

in one-chapter-per-character style.

Popular platforms for WebQuest development

include Zunal (http://zunal.com), QuestGarden

(http://questgarden.com) and OpenWebQuest

(http://eprl.korinthos.uop.gr/openwebquest/). For the

purposes of this research, the WebQuest ‘Stories of

Refugees’ is designed and developed in the

OpenWebQuest platform, which is offered free of

charge and provides an interface in greek

(http://eprl.korinthos.uop.gr/openwebquest/view/inde

x.php?wq=1534).

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‘Stories of Refugees’ is structured in the standard

six (6) phases for WebQuests and includes missions

for six (6) groups: the Linguists, the Historians, the

Archaeologists, the Movie Makers, the Philologists

and the Psychologists. The missions are outlined,

documented, guided and carried out collaboratively;

upon completion, they are presented through the

platform. Figure 1 shows the Title/ID and

Introduction webpages of the WebQuest (in greek).

The pebble art by the awarded syrian sculptor Nizar

Ali Badr and the poem ‘Argonauts’ by Nobel laureate

greek poet George Seferis are selected to be in

context with the ‘Stories for Refugees’ topic of the

Quest.

Figure 1: Title/ID and Introduction webpages of the ‘Stories

for Refugees’ WebQuest (OpenWebQuest platform-in

greek).

4.2 Experimental Methodology, Settings

and Participants

A quasi-experiment is set up to investigate the

research questions stated in the Research Outline

section. Such a setting uses any pre-existing grouping

within the sample instead of random sampling (Cohen

et al., 2002). Care is taken to demote any biasing

factors between the experimental and the control

group: The two groups are equivalent in school

performance; they have the same class teacher in

Literature; collaborative learning is employed in both

cases (throughout, in the experimental group;

partially, in the control group) while collaborative

activities are of equal cognitive loads; common

multimedia learning contents are used; two (2)

teachers-observers (the class teachers for

Language/Literature and Computers) are present in all

sessions; the same literary text is taught in both

groups; common evaluation method and criteria are

used; the intervention is run in both groups by the

same teacher (first author). The evaluation of the

practical aspects of the intervention (quality of the

WebQuest developed; suitability for the target group;

feasibility of the learning scenario given the time

limitations set by the Curriculum) constitutes a case

study.

Forty seven (47) 2

grade (13-14 years old)

students, in a public Model Junior High School in

Athens, Greece, took part in the educational

intervention. The experimental group (24 students: 16

boys and 8 girls) and the control group (23 students:

14 boys and 9 girls) are all of greek mother tongue

and constitute a ‘convenient’ sample (one to which

the instructor-first author of this paper has immediate

access). It is not a representative sample, as students

are admitted in Model Schools through a strict

selection process involving written exams. As this

could not be setup as a randomized experiment, care

was taken to choose two cohorts of equivalent

performance. Indeed, the cohorts selected have

equivalent motivation towards the subject of

Literature and equivalent class average grades (17.9

and 18.3 over 20); a pre-test was therefore not

necessary. The roles of the experimental and of the

control group were assigned randomly, for internal

validity. A preparatory action organized before the

intervention was the interdisciplinary instruction of

the Greek Language and Computers subjects in the 1

and 2

graders of this school, for 1 hour / week, to

boost ICT skills and to get students to employ ICT

tools in critical reading and production of texts.

4.3 The Intervention in Phases

The intervention ran in four (4) face-to-face sessions

in class, of 45 minutes each, spread across two

consecutive weeks. The school’s digital coop

classroom was employed. It is equipped with eight (8)

workstations, desks arranged for groups of four (4)

around each workstation, an interactive whiteboard

and a video projector. Six (6) groups of students were

formed, of four (4) members each, heterogeneous as

to gender and performance. The learning plan was

purely collaborative for the experimental group and

hybrid collaborative-lecturing for the control group.

4.3.1 The Control Group Learning Plan

The text-centered interpretation approach is adopted

for the control group, in an attempt to stay close to the

habitual method of class instruction. Guided

discussions, free dialogue, brainstorming,

collaborative learning and ICT use (class wiki,

audiovisual contents drawn from the Internet, digital

storylines) are the strategies selected and used to

provoke the students’ interest and provide them with

information on the topics examined. In brief, the

intervention has proceeded per teaching session as

follows:

Teaching Modern Greek Literature to Teenagers through a Collaborative Webquest: Design, Implementation, Evaluation

203

Session: Motivation and introduction using mixed

material (a poem, an image and a video), followed by

oral interpretation: the teacher has read aloud the

literary text in class.

Session: Comprehension and interpretation of the

literary text using worksheets. Tasks assigned, to be

completed initially at the class and subsequently at the

group level.

Session: Students present their completed works

(assigned in 2nd session) to the class; teacher’s

feedback.

Session: Students present their completed works

(continued). The class watches a relevant video and

takes part in a brainstorming session to draw

conclusions as to the major message of the literary

text. Personal assignments follow for homework; the

intervention is concluded.

4.3.2 The Experimental Group Learning

Plan

The approach used in this group is text-centered,

communicative, interpretative and interdisciplinary.

In order to implement collaborative learning using a

WebQuest, ICT are employed as authoring tools for

multimedia content contributed by students,

presentation tools for completed group projects,

library space and information searching and retrieval

space. The intervention follows the WebQuest steps:

Session: Brief introduction by the teacher to the

WebQuest tool; navigation in the platform. Students

complete the Introduction and Activities parts in it,

under the teacher’s guidance. In the Evaluation part

they get informed on how and on what criteria they

will be evaluated and in the Process part they read

their missions and get self-organized (allocation of

roles and duties).

Session: Students work in groups to accomplish

their missions. The teacher holds a guiding,

supportive role (Figure 2).

Session: Students continue working in groups;

they complete their missions. Group projects are

uploaded to the class wiki after self-evaluation. The 3

out of 4 groups briefly present their projects live in

class.

Session: The 4th group presents their project live

in class. All groups complete the Conclusion part of

the WebQuest. Personal assignments follow for

homework; the intervention is concluded.

Unfortunately, cross-evaluation and discussion in

class to summarize major points and draw

conclusions had to be omitted, due to time limitations.

Figure 2: Snapshots of 4 out of the 6 experimental group

teams, while they work on their WebQuest missions.

4.4 Evaluation: Data Collection,

Analysis and Results

4.4.1 Research Question 1: Motivation

The Instructional Materials Motivation Survey

(IMMS) questionnaire, designed by Keller (1987) in

correspondence to the ARCS method, has been

employed to investigate the motivation of students in

the experimental versus the control group. Students’

answers to the revised IMMS (Huang et al., 2006)

used in the post-test are given in Table 1, in the form

of group averages +/- standard deviations, for each

one of the 4 components of Motivation, namely,

Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction,

and for net Motivation (sum of the 4 components).

The experimental group (i) scores higher than the

control group, both in net Motivation (72.550 versus

65.173) and in each of the components, while (ii)

exhibits consistently lower standard deviations, which

is desirable.

Table 1: Evaluation results on students’ motivation along

ARCS components: average +/- standard deviation.

Experimental

Group

Control

Group

Attention

38.870 ± 7.822

34.087 ± 8.005

Relevance

11.500 ± 2.078

10.608 ± 2.294

Confidence

19.125 ± 3.430

18.000 ± 4.000

Satisfaction

03.041 ± 1.122

02.478 ± 1.201

Motivation

(total)

72.550 ± 12.449

65.173 ± 13.231

4.4.2 Research Question 2: Collaboration

The level and quality of collaboration among students

in the same group was assessed through the questions:

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(a) “How much has your participation in this course

promoted collaboration with your classmates?” and

(b) “Are you satisfied by the quality of collaboration

with your classmates during this course?” Students’

answers are given at five (5) levels ranging from ‘Not

at all’ (1) to ‘Extremely’ (5). The results, summarized

in Table 2 in absolute student numbers per answer

level, agree to what the two teachers-observers have

stated in their interviews: In both groups students

have collaborated smoothly and managed to complete

all assignments and missions. Students in the

experimental group, however, have collaborated more

‘fervently’, being compelled to ‘search and discover’

and to ‘use interesting new tools’ which ‘motivated

them’ – as the two teachers-observers have put it. As

they had to collaborate around and through the

computer, in order to resolve technical and non-

technical issues and format their projects and

presentations, they exhibited a higher level of verbal

and non-verbal exchange and communication than

students in the control group did. No quarrel ever did

arise in any one group; and yet, students in the

experimental group have held more discussions and

took part more actively in the group activities.

Table 2: Comparative results on collaboration: student

numbers per answer level (experimental / control group).

Not at all

Slightly

Moderately

Very Much

Extremely

Question (a)

2 / 2

4 / 9

8 / 6

8 / 3

Question (b)

4 / 2

1 / 2

5 / 12

6 / 5

6 / 2

4.4.3 Research Question 3: Attitude towards

the Course

Students were asked to characterize the

instruction/learning method employed as ‘pleasant’ or

‘unpleasant’ and to justify their answer. The majority

of the experimental group students (21 out of 24)

answered ‘pleasant’; only three (3) students didn’t

find it pleasant. To justify their choice, they stated

that both the learning content and the learning method

were interesting, creative, enjoyable, not boring or

tiring at the least. As a result, they have enjoyed

working for their projects.

Further analysis of their answers to open-style

questions has revealed that this attitude is due to (i)

the teamwork (for the majority), (ii) their satisfaction

for the quality of their project outcomes, and (iii) the

fancy (and fun) of working through the computer and

over the Internet.

Students in the control group have also developed

a positive attitude towards this course, though not to

the degree of the experimental group: 15 out of the 23

students characterized it as ‘pleasant’, while 8

students characterized it as ‘unpleasant’; 5 of them

explained ‘unpleasant’ as ‘boring’. Only 4 students

referred to collaboration in their learning plan to

justify their overall satisfaction – a considerably lower

count than the experimental group, where the majority

referred to collaboration as a source of satisfaction.

4.4.4 Research Question 4: Learning

Outcomes Attained

The progress achieved through the intervention in the

cognitive domain is evaluated by (i) a post-test (8

marks) and (ii) the personal assignments given for

homework at the end of the 4th session, which

include a content comprehension task (6 marks) and a

creative writing task (8 marks), both graded by the

teacher using rubrics.

The results given in Table 3 show that the control

group scored clearly higher in the post test (retention

of new knowledge, 88% versus 78% for the

experimental group) as well as in the creative writing

personal homework assignment (75% versus 61.3%).

The experimental group scored marginally higher in

the content comprehension part of the homework

assignment (73% versus 70%).

Table 3: Evaluation results on learning outcomes attained:

group average scores (absolute values and % values).

Post-Test,

in class

(8 marks)

Homework:

Content

comprehension

(6 marks)

Homework:

Creative

writing

(8 marks)

Exper.

Group

6.25

(78.1 %)

4.40

(73.3 %)

4.91

(61.3 %)

Control

Group

7.04

(88.0 %)

4.20

(70.0 %)

6.00

(75.0 %)

The qualitative assessment of the projects completed

by the teams in the two group shows that most of the

experimental group teams have produced projects of a

clearly higher quality compared to the control group –

although these projects do not constitute fully

comparable material, in terms of form, structure and

targets set.

4.4.5 Evaluation of the Webquest

The WebQuest was evaluated by (i) the students and

the two class teachers (design and implementation),

(ii) a group of volunteering language teachers

(design). Evaluated components include structure,

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205

contents, material organization and presentation,

usability, technical and pedagogical soundness,

suitability for the target group.

Students were positive as to all the components

and particularly as to the contents, which they found

to be ‘clear’, ‘useful’, ‘directly correlated to the

subject of Literature’ and ‘captivating’. Assignments

were rated as ‘not too difficult’, ‘not stressing’.

Structure and presentation of the material was

characterized by the majority as ‘attractive’, ‘not

overloaded’, ‘not cluttered’. As to the organization,

only 1/3 of the students considered it ‘captivating’ (10

students were ‘neutral’), while answers on

presentation style, colours and emphasis were

balanced. The majority were positive as to the

usability: platform access and navigation were

‘straightforward’; interaction was ‘easy’; no technical

problems or software malfunctions have been

reported. Most students commented favourably on the

features of active participation, self-assessment,

explicit and open evaluation criteria and feedback.

The level of content and platform usage requirements

were deemed suitable for the target group

(themselves). Minor collaboration problems have

been reported; time limitations were criticized.

The two class teachers were both strongly

positive: they found the topic ‘imaginative’,

‘uncommon’ and ‘interdisciplinary’, the structure

‘excellent’, the learning process ‘controlled by the

student’ thanks to ‘student autonomy’. Pedagogic

features of self-assessment, personalized instruction,

student autonomy and initiative, active-discovery

learning, and the development of problem-solving

skills were all commented upon favourably.

Suitability for the target group was answered de facto

by the enthusiastic collaboration and successful

completion of all missions, especially so from the

experimental group, reported to include strong, highly

competitive student personalities, with coordination

problems and a preference for individual work at

home. They found the flow of the intervention

‘smooth’; they stressed the need for the teacher to

plan carefully and to prepare alternatives for the case

of technical problems.

The volunteering teachers-evaluators were equally

or more positive in their views. They added positive

comments on the scenario, the topic and its

timeliness, the experiential nature of learning through

WebQuests, the clarity of the structure of this

WebQuest, the creativity it asked for, the multimedia

presentation of the material, as well as the technical

soundness and the easy platform access and

navigation. Pedagogical advantages mentioned are the

functional inclusion of ICT in learning, the active

participation of students ‘scaffolded’ by the teacher,

the students’ autonomy and experiential, discovery

learning and the added value as to the curriculum of

Literature. This type of intervention, however, was

considered ‘very demanding’ for the teacher in terms

of preparation / class time required.

5 CONCLUSIONS - FURTHER

RESEARCH

The positive evaluation results obtained from post

tests and questionnaires of the students, observation

sheets and interviews of two class teachers-observers

and a number of volunteering teachers-evaluators, are

in good agreement with existing research results on

collaborative learning plans employing ICT. These

results reveal that the proposed approach holds a

considerable potential for motivating young students

towards a ‘difficult’ subject such as Literature, for

engaging them in active, discovery learning and for

cultivating their collaborative skills. They are in good

agreement with positive results reported on the

educational uses of WebQuests: increased motivation

and engagement (Friedman and VanFossen, 2010;

Ikpeze and Boyd, 2007; Tsai 2006); positive attitude

towards the subject taught (Beyerbach and Burrell,

2004; Murry 2006); increased collaboration (Laborda,

2009; Leahy and Twomey, 2005).

On the other hand, the learning outcomes

measured in the experimental group are comparable

or slightly inferior to those of the control group.

These results are in good agreement to existing

research as well (Strickland and Nazzal, 2005; Gaskill

et al., 2006). A possible explanation of this fact is that

the experimental group has had time just enough to

complete their missions; due to practical limitations,

they have not been given time to recapitulate and hold

a discussion in class – a phase that did take place in

the control group. Another tentative explanation was

offered by one of the two teachers-observers, who

pointed out that no group did give wrong answers on

questions directly related to their own mission. In

assigning distinct roles and distinct missions to each

group, the WebQuest may be decimating the taught

material and thus preventing participants from

‘connecting the pieces’ and ‘constructing the whole

picture’.

In light of the fact that the construction of new

knowledge, i.e. the development of interpretation

strategies and creative writing skills through

Literature takes time and practice, such findings

should not come as a surprise. Rather, they

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constitute a clear indication that (a) both detailed

learning planning and meticulous execution are

critical to the quality of the results, while (b) further

research and analysis is necessary in order to fully

understand whether such results are inherent to the

WebQuest method or may be reversed – and how. In

any case – and beyond the WebQuest case – the

major objectives of teaching Literature, namely, the

understanding and interpretation of literary texts and

the development of creative writing skills, render

Literature a demanding subject and leave the

question of the proper framework for ICT

integration in Literature open to further research.

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