Would Socrates Approve of WebQuests?

After reading the article, "What Would Socrates Say?", I believe that Socrates would approve of WebQuests as long as the following standards were set.

The article says, "Mass education belongs in the era of massive armies, massive industrial complexes, and massive attempts at social control" which leads me to believe that Socrates would be pleased with the way technology has made it easier for individuals to contribute to a group. However, I believe that along with a final group presentation, each student should turn in his individual contribution and that along with a group evalution, the student should be given an individual evaluation. This ensures that each member of the group is learning and developing his/her knowledge of the WebQuest content.

Another problem is the lack of an educational filter in the internet that separates the credible from the non-credible. The article says, "Every day we are exposed to huge amounts of information, disinformation, and just plain nonsense. The ability to distinguish fact from factoid, reality from fiction, and truth from lies is not a "nice to have" but a "must have" in a world flooded with so much propaganda and spin". Socrates would be appalled by the disinformation that students have access to. A proper WebQuest must make sure that the websites and information that it presents are credible and that the students are using proper sources to conduct their research.

According to the article, "He believed that learning came from within and that the best and most lasting way to bring latent knowledge to awareness was through the process of continual questioning and unconventional inquiry", therefore Socrates would be pleased with the question and answer process that search engines provide IF all of the answers were factual. To comply with Socrates's beliefs, a WebQuest should ensure both individual and group responsibility, demonstrate responsible use of the internet's credible sites, and allow student's to ask and answer questions in order to obtain answers or gain knowledge.

According to "A Taxonomy of WebQuest Tasks", my WebQuest falls under the category of "Journalistic Tasks" because it asks learners to act as reporters and cover the events of the 1920's.