At the beginning of this century, webquests were popular teaching methods in schools designed to introduce students to learning and research using the Internet. Today, however, this method is rarely used. While you can still find older webquests online, because they haven’t been updated, the links are broken and the content is outdated. Furthermore, there are hardly any in-depth discussions or new case studies about this teaching method anymore.

In my new essay, which can be downloaded from this website, I explain the reasons behind this shift. I argue that, above all, new developments in the field of artificial intelligence have undermined the didactic concept:

The transition from “Google”-style keyword searches to AI-based prompts also requires a reevaluation of pedagogical approaches to Internet searching. Furthermore, the focus is no longer on simple knowledge retrieval, but rather on the active construction of knowledge through the interaction between the creator (in this case, the students) and the AI assistant as co-creators.

Here is the full text of my new essay, “Webquest 2.0 – AI in Schools”