by Elisabeth Nedergaard, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

This case study is on a WebQuest about the different perceptions of antiquity in the first half of the 1800s and the reflections of these in the art of the period, especially in the so-called Golden Age of Danish art, see http://fc.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_startside.htm

The title of the WebQuest is "Stille Storhed" (silent grandeur), reflecting the expression used by Johann Joachim Winckelmann to reveal the character of Greek sculpture in general and the Laocoon group in particular: "Stille Grösse und edle Einfalt".

The WebQuest in question was conceived as part of an assignment for the Danish in-service training of the pedagogical use of ICT called "Gymnasie-it", see http://www.gymnasie-it.dk. The intended audience is students of the final year (3.g students age 18-20) doing a collaborative project between the subjects History, Art and Classical Civilisation, but the WebQuest should be applicable also to students doing only Classical Civilisation or Greek and also for 2.g use (age 17-19).
The WebQuest was designed in the autumn of 2003 by Elisabeth Nedergaard (Classical Civilisation, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) in collaboration with Lone Gosvig Milling (History, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Alice Bergholt Nilsson (Art, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), teachers from Noerresundby Gymnasium & HF-kursus.

The WebQuest that is made accessible on the internet, consist of the following parts or "building blocks" (see the chapter about constructing a WebQuest above):

1. Title page (called "Startside", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_startside.htm)
2. Introduction (called "Introduktion", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_intro.htm)
3. Task description (called "Hovedopgave", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_proces.htm)
4. Process description (called "Processen", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_proces.htm) and in connection with this a work sheet (called "Opgaveark", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_proces.htm#Opgaveark 
5. Evaluation instructions (called "Evaluering", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_eval.htm)
6. Conclusion (called "Konklusion", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_konklusion.htm)
7. Teacher's page (called "Laererens side", see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_laerer.htm)

The title page is only there to give an overview of the different parts of the WebQuest and present the overall title. The introduction tells the students of the function of the WebQuest in connection with the subject treated in class. It states which qualifications the students already should have achieved to move to the evaluation of the neo-classical perception of antiquity. They should already have practised recognising Greek art from different periods and learned about the masterpieces, as for instance the Doryphoros of Polyclitus, the Apoxyomenos of Lysippus and the Laocoon group from the Vatican Museums.

The task description states the overall aim of the WebQuest, that the students will become confident with the perception of antiquity in the neo-classical period and be able to see this in a broader context from what they already learned of the period in general. One may then ask the question whether each historical period uses an image of antiquity to suit its own purpose and further ask what the function of antiquity is today. The students are told to go to the process page and find the work description and the worksheet and solve the different subordinate questions to reach the overall understanding of the subject.

The process page tells the students about the different kinds of assignments in WebQuest and what they are supposed to do with them. They are told that the resources for each assignment are found in the worksheet. All students are going to work on the same 5 assignments, since this WebQuest is conceived only as a short term WebQuest (three lessons of 95 minutes including the final plenary session). The first four 4 assignments are to be answered by the students in pairs (and in the order set). They are each are divided into smaller sections consisting of research (redegoerelsesopgave), reflection (refleksionsopgave) or analysis (analyseopgave). The overall interpretation of the subject (= assignment 5) is to take place in the final plenary session based on the results obtained during the pair work on the four first assignments. The students are told on the process page that if by chance they do not complete the answers of the four first assignments within the two lesson frame, the rest of the work must be done individually as homework for the final lesson.

The worksheet presents the five assignments and their subdivisions. For each subdivision the type of question is defined (redegoerelsesopgave/refleksionsopgave/analyseopgave), and one or more net-based resources for answering the question are marked out. The worksheet is found in both a downloadable Word file in which the students can write the results obtained, see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St-st_opgaver_Word.doc, and in an html edition, see http://www.nrsbgym.dk/~en/old/Webquest/St_st_opgaveark_web.htm
The five assignments are as follows:

1. Behind neo-classicism: The aesthetic discussion in the 1700s (eight minor questions about Winckelmann and Lessing)
2. Antiquity in the Golden Age sculpture (three questions about the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, one about Winckelmann's ideas about the Apollo Belvedere, one about the later reaction towards the neo-classical idealism: "We artists are no longer allowed to sit like Thorvaldsen in Rome imitating antiquity...", said by the sculptor Niels Hansen Jacobsen in 1899).
3. Antiquity in the paintings of the Golden Age (one question about the Danish painter Nicolai Abildgaard and his painting of the wounded Philoctetes, one about the French Jacques-Louis David and the Oath of the Horatii and one about the Danish painter Martinus Roerbye who worked in Athens shortly after the Greek fight for independence was over (1833).
4. Antiquity in the architecture of the Golden Age (four questions on the Danish brothers and architects Christian and Theophilus Hansen, both working in Athens after independence in 1833 and also participating in the works on the Athenian Acropolis in that period).
5. Main assignment (to be answered in plenum, see above under task description. The assignment contains 9 questions to get the discussion started).

The evaluation instructions give the students the criteria by which their performance will be graded. They are supposed actively to take part in the work process, and they are told that not only the quantity of their work, but also the quality of this will be noticed. They are told how important it is not only to seek information, but to use this critically in proceeding through analysis to interpretation and contextualisation. Only then can information be transformed into knowledge.

The conclusion states that the students after finishing the WebQuest should have gained knowledge of the neo-classical perception of antiquity and through that a better understanding of the period's sculpture, paintings and architecture. In addition to this, the work on the neo-classical period should have given new contexts for the classical works of art already known to the students and allowed discussion of their function in present day Europe.

The teacher's page offers both general information about WebQuest as a concept and information about this WebQuest in particular. This information is given from teacher to teacher and corresponds more or less to the chapter in this manual about how to create a WebQuest supplied with the present chapter.

At the time of writing, the "Stille Storhed" WebQuest has not yet been tested on students. The facilities needed for using the WebQuest are a number of computers with Internet access equivalent to half of the number of students (= one computer for each pair of students).

It took a terribly long time to create the WebQuest and seek out the right links to use, but the subject is so difficult to access and the materials so difficult to find that there would have been no point in just asking the students to search freely for information on the Internet. Actually, WebQuest is a very fine concept for dealing with rather difficult subjects or subjects for which it is difficult to find materials on the Internet. By letting the teacher take control of the search for the relevant links, the students can concentrate on the subject itself without wasting many hours in futile searches for information.