WEBQUEST AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT TO BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

This article aims to describe and analyze the power of WebQuest as a potential tool of collaborative learning on the web. Through this environment, the act of learning can be made in a constructionist way, using multiple resources (video conferencing, chats, forums, e-mail, wikis, blogs, and others). In this way, with the possibility of aggregate this diversity of resources, WebQuest becomes an environment that expand the collaborative spaces between the students, allowing to the process of teaching and learning to take place, surpassing the walls of the classroom. As a methodological procedure for the development of this article, we decided to present examples of the WebQuest use in educational contexts, complementing the discussions with the analysis and indication of its structure and potential for the teaching-learning process. In this sense, the analyses were enriched with studies extracted from bibliographical and documental references. As main results, the study shows how much the use of these resources can help to create new knowledge, in a collaborative, meaningful and contextualized way, since they expand the learning spaces and the development of educational programs, from the students' interest, fomenting students and teachers to interact, beyond the classroom, through different technological resources. Thereby, the study shows that learning on the web, through the WebQuest, implies a significant change in the attitude of students and teachers, as well as in developing the school curriculum, favoring thereby a redefinition of what does it means to teach and learn in the digital era, especially through the web, a space that can provide a more attractive and exciting learning method nowadays.