While researching for Web 2.0 Tools that can be used in the classroom for the different AVK Learners (Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic), I came across a good site "100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner".

This article lists 100 tools divided up into the appropriateness of each tool to AVK learners.

This site explores different tools for Visual Learners - 34 in fact - divided into 3 categories: Mind Mapping; Charting & Diagrams; and, Videos and Photos.

For Audio Learners, there are 31 tools divided into the following categories: Podcasts; Presentation Tools; Audio Tools; Text Readers; and, Audio Books.

For Kinesthetic Learners, there are 34 tools listed in the categories: Note Taking Tools; Bookmarking; Interaction; and, Collaboration.

This collection of tools offers teachers a range of tools that can be incorporated into the classroom even if you are not using WebQuests. They are there to be investigated and will enhance any lesson.

I can see their great application to WebQuests. These tools will enable the teacher to create WebQuests that will cater for all their students covering all the AVKs.

Using WebQuests involves tapping into students' Social and Emotional Intelligence especially when students take on Perspectives or Roles within a WebQuest!

This can be a very powerful thing! Students taking on a different perspective to solve the problems or issues presented in a WebQuest can get them to look at the problem in a way they have never considered before.

For example, I was team teaching in a NSW country school - a Year 6 (or Stage 3) class. We were getting the students to work with a WebQuest on Rainforests. I asked a particular boy (a rather big boy) to be a Logger as a perspective. He didn't want to take on this perspective as he pointed out to me that his family were "Greenies" (in a very strong Australian accent). I persuaded him to take on this role. After the lesson, he came up to me and said "I'm going to tell my Dad about you and this work!".

I was pretty taken back (and concerned about the size of the father!) but bravely said "What will you tell him?" And he replied, and blew my mind away... "Loggers they need jobs too!" He had emotionally connected with the perspective he was given and this had a great influence on his ideas and thoughts!

Remember the image of IQ and EQ:

When you are creating or using a WebQuest, be sure to take your student's EQ into account when allocating perspectives or roles!

I have come across (via Jane Hart's wonderful Pick of the Day), a great tool allowing you as a teacher or if your students are presenting in PowerPoint, a way of allowing the audience to interact with the presentation.

"The twitter tools allow presenters to see and react to tweets in real-time, embedded directly within their presentations, either as a ticker or refreshable comment page.

There are currently eight tools – you can easily cut and paste them into your own PowerPoint decks:

• PowerPoint Twitter feedback slides
• PowerPoint AutoTweet
• PowerPoint Twitter voting — bar charts and pie chart
• PowerPoint Twitter ticker bar
• PowerPoint Mood meter
• PowerPoint Crowd meter
• PowerPoint Zoom text
• PowerPoint Twitter update bar" (Source: Free PPT Twitter Tools)

The use of these tools will allow your WebQuest or your students' PPTs to become interactive in real time. Much learning can happen from these additions especially when your students are giving their presentations. You will need to have agreed protocols for this feedback but as the students are involved this challenge can be easily overcome.

At Teacher/Trainer Professional Learning or TPL [http://www.webquestdirect.com.au/pd] we have gone back to basics about the development of a WebQuest. Reason? Well we were getting too many "WebQuests" submitted or created with SWAT that were just Research Assignments or Worksheets! It is so frustrating to find that teachers and trainers are using an old definition of WebQuests - "using anything on the Internet" instead of knowing that WebQuests are a sub-set of Problem-Based Learning (PBL).

For that reason, all our online courses have the following lesson plans:

Lesson 1: Overview and What is a WebQuest?

Lesson 2: Problem Based Learning [PBL]. What is a 'messy' problem? What is a Big Question - Essential Question or Focus Question?

Lesson 3: Roles or Perspectives: How is Collaboration involved?

Lesson 4: Tips for using Higher Order Thinking Skill Activities within the WebQuest

Lesson 5 & 6: How to use our Web 2.0 Tool (including using video clips, avatars)

Lesson 7: Scaffolding a WebQuest: Introduction, Task, Process, Resources, Evaluation, Conclusion, Teacher's/Trainer's Guide - each section's purpose is explained

Lesson 8: Assessment: Show off your WebQuest!