Use of web quest as a gamified information and communication technology in the training process of future specialists in preschool and primary education

Abstract

The article is dedicated to highlighting the theoretical principles of using web quests as a gamified information and communication technology in the training process of future specialists in preschool and primary education. Specifically, it substantiates the essence of web quests as a gamified information and communication technology, reveals the psychological structure of a web quest as an educational game, and discusses the modeling of web quests as a way of their pedagogical technologization. It is proven that a web quest is closely linked to two key concepts: game and information and communication technologies, thus the essence of a web quest as a gamified educational technology is revealed precisely through the content of these concepts. The essence of a web quest as a game, from a philosophical point of view, is understood as a form of free self-expression of a person, which implies real openness to the world of possibilities and unfolds asimprovisation, competition, or representation of certain situations, meanings, and states of affairs. In the context of education, a game is an instrument of pedagogical action. The teacher, in implementing their professional activity, embeds a specific educational component into the structure of the game and directs students towards achieving the educational goal. In scientific research, the concept of a game is considered as a genus in relation to the terminological phrase “game activity”, and it is precisely the understanding of the objective content of this terminological phrase that has contributed to the creation of productive gamified information and communication technologies for teaching students. It is established that the psychological model of a quest as an educational game appears as a systematically ordered set of interconnected and interdependent components (motivational, goal-setting, content-related, procedural, control and evaluative, and result-oriented). The presence of the components in the structure of web quests brings them closer to the educational-cognitive activities of vocational education seekers, which facilitates their integration into the training process of future specialists in preschool and primary education. The modelling of a web quest as a way of its pedagogical technologization is discussed.