The Greatest Quiz Machine Ever?

The Quiz – is this one of the greatest inventions ever? I mean who doesn’t love a good quiz? Since I can remember (which admittedly isn’t that long ago), people have always wanted to test their understanding and knowledge by taking part in ‘The Quiz’. As a medium, it provides so many of our social needs: socializing and teamwork;  the need to find answers to questions; competition and recognition. The quiz sates a natural curiosity that drives us to search for the answers to any number of questions we might have.

I am a quiz lover! I have always loved boardgames like Trivial pursuit. I loved watching University Challenge, QI, Blockbusters, fifteen to one, the weakest link…the list could go on. Why? Maybe it was because I wanted everyone to see that I at least had a little knowledge about something (I wanted recognition) or maybe it was because I thought I was better at the quiz than the other contestants or maybe I just wanted to learn something new! Whatever the reasons, the simple fact is that ‘The Quiz’ provides people with a fun way of challenging themselves to find the answers to questions they are interested in answering / finding the answers to.

The Greatest Quiz Machine Ever!

Finally we have been given the World Wide Web, and with it, the search engines that transform this entity into the greatest quiz machine ever created! To reinforce this point you only need read the article by Bob Sprankle where he talks about Google’s ‘Google a day’ as a method for encouraging students to think more carefully about the searches they make; however, for me, this quote from the same article is even more important:

I can imagine classes breaking up into teams to compete against each other, or graphing their best times each day. Each daily answer could also lead to even more research for students.

Here we have a perfect example of the Web’s quiz like qualities and it’s abilities to act as a tool for educating in a fun, interesting and open manner. I am going to try and adapt the ‘Google a day’ game so that the children in my class get the chance to have a go at being contestants on the greatest quiz machine ever created. Not only will they be learning about something completely new in a fun and exciting way, they will also be learning how to carry out a more comprehensive and detailed internet search. And who knows – they may even win a prize…

A final thought!

To me the Web is still a mystery and despite my attempts to read many of the articles designed to give you a better understanding of what the World Wide Web is, I still find myself struggling to make sense of it. For me, the problem is the sheer size and complexity of the web! I mean the internet is so many different things to so many people.

One article that did help me to better understand some of the web’s components was a list of twenty different things that make up the web and browsers by the Google Chrome team. After reading this article, I definitely had a clearer idea of some of the terms and phrases that help people to better understand the different aspects of the web. However, if I am being completely honest, even though I have read this article I still find the web an intricate and baffling entity which puzzles, amazes, helps and terrifies me in equal measures!