Mary and Stacy WWW Class Presentation

Mary and Stacie showed us the site Biology4 Kids. She pointed out that the site was very informative but was not very interactive until the students take the quizzes on the various science topics. Also, she mentioned that you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to click on the table and navigate. However, she did mention that the navigation was not that easy and that students could easily navigate from the site. It does have a site map which makes it easier to navigate. When watching the videos, slow loading is a problem.

We were divided into two groups to review the scientific method. One group read the information and the other group watched a video. After completing the assignment, we each received a remote for Beyond Question Student Response System. The teachers had fun playing with the student response system, but some of the remote responses were not responding and that was frustrating.

The program is primarily for students or children instead of teachers. The videos are good if you can get them to load. Mary shared how you use it in your science class. She directs students to the site to begin their research. The Beyond Question allows both the teacher and the students immediate feedback.

Final project topic

I am planning on doing a WebQuest on a propaganda unit that we have in our subject area. I am concentrating on propaganda in politics. I have started finding links to 2008 political campaign commercial/advertisements and will have the students view and then design their own political advertisements.

An article every educator can relate to

I found myself smiling as I read Ken Vesey's article, The Internet-only Research Approach: Does the Web Really Have All There Is to Say? It brought back memories of having to sit on the first day of preplanning and listen to speakers go on and on about the latest trend in education. The first day of preplanning is hardly the time to present new technology or teaching strategies. The author pointed out that when the speakers began talking about WebQuests, the teachers in the auditorium began to squirm. How unfortunate it is that such a valuable tool as a WebQuest was presented in such a way. On the first day most teachers are concentrating on what they will be teaching, how many students they will teach and if they will have a good or a bad year, not on new teaching strategies that they feel are being forced on them.
The author played the devil's advocate, as most educators would do in this situation, and found fault in the sample lesson plans that were presented to them. First, he acknowledged that when teachers saw how easy it was to link to sites in the WebQuest and their visual appeal, they were intrigued. Then, he pointed out that the presenters did not mention the fact that the information linked was limited in its value since there were no actual documents or primary sources which could be found in library references. He also noted that some of the links were littered with advertisements while others were written by people with little notoriety.
Explaining how valuable WebQuests can be should require more time than just one day of preplanning. Introducing new technology-based strategies to teachers is important since these types of strategies will prepare out students for a future in an information-rich world.

Great article for evaluating Websites

One of Holly's required readings, The ABC's of Website Evaluation, by Kathy Schrock is going to be very helpful to my subject area this year. We are going to incorportate more technology into our curriculum and will have to not only teach the ins and outs of using laptops but also surfing the web. Evaluating websites will be an important lesson. I have found that most students Google a topic, read only the first article and take what the author says as truth and nothing but the truth. This article gives us a launching pad to plan our lesson. From this article we will be able to formulate a checklist for students to use to evaluate a site.
The most important fact that the article points out is that if students learn how to evaluate online information, they are using critical thinking skills which can be very useful in the information age they live in.
Ms. Scrock's article is also filled with helpful sites to find evaluation surveys.

A must read before designing a Webquest

I found the most helpful article on designing Webquests from My lesley databases. The article, Inquiry-Based Learning and Technology: Designing and Exploring WebQuests, written by Jan Lacina, explained very clearly why teachers like Webquests. Most importantly, it pointed out that WebQuests use technology activities to interest students while promoting reading in the content areas as well as engaging students in cooperative learning and all of the information comes from previewed links provided by the teacher comes from sources on the Web. Also it stated that Webquests foster higher level thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) which is the most important tool that students can take with them in the future.
The article also provided a link to Bernie Dodge's site:
(http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html) to see templates he has provided for the novice developer of WebQuets. Teachers can also view other Quests on this site.
It also gave more detail about the five components of a Webquest, but perhaps the most useful part of the article to me was the five pieces of advice to teachers before they begin to create a WebQuest (time to view other Quests, organize steps for students to follow, don't include too many resources that confuse students, be a facilitator but first model how to use the Quest, always have a contingency plan and print copies of the Webquest in case of technical failure, and show great amounts of enthusiasm to excite the students).
In case you want to read the entire article, go to Myleslie databases, clicked on Places to Start, clicked on Academic Search, clicked on the Advanced Search tab at the top and typed in Inquiry-Based Learning and Technology: Designing and Exploring WebQuests.

Super Read!

I am sure that many of my classmates feel the same as I do about one of the tutorials, A Future Fiction, written by David F. Warlick. Don't we all hope that this is in the near future and we will be able to experience it? I found myself drawn to the fiction story he so vividly told. This story supports the fact that when teachers are facilitators and students use a variety of technological devices, that the student's are able to display their creativity and porblem solving skills. That concept is hard to grasp by many veteran teachers, however, as new educators are trained technology will be ever present and the possibility of having a classroom such as Mr. Warlick describes is a definite possibility. I also noticed that all students were involved in the group project and that even those labeled as the slow learners did very well on the project. I have witnessed in my class that technology use does promote student learning and improve attendance. I couldn't help but wish that I would someday play out the scenario described in the story in my own classroom. There's still hope!

WWW Class Presentation

For the class website presentation, Caroline Dean and I will be sharing the Scholastic web page. It is filled with teacher lesson plans and ideas as well as student activities for all disciplines. Caroline was drawn toward the language arts section whereas I went straight to the science lab experiments. We are both excited about sharing all the valuable information that the site provides.