myedit2000

Your WebQuest project is due at the end of class today.

Use the checklist distributed in today’s class to review your website and make sure everything is working.

About class on Tuesday
• Class is not optional – late passes will not be accepted for Tuesday absences.
• Present a showcase of this semester’s work.
• The reflection paper is due.
• Prepare a presentation that shares the most representative work of yours. during the semester. A prize will be awarded for the best presentation.
• Complete end of course evaluation and take a class picture.

Once you’ve hooked your students with your introduction and you’ve explained succinctly the task – it’s time to give detailed guidance on how they can accomplish their task.

Here are some things to remember about the Process section:

1. This should be a step-by-step description of what students will do.
2. Students should be assigned roles (journalist, editor, astronaut, politician, etc.) and given specific information on their “job descriptions”.
3. Students should be able to access links to at least 5 age appropriate resources that will help them to complete their task. This should not be a list of 5 long web addresses. It should be a title that links to the website and a short description of what students will find there. For example:

Currency Converter:

As you plan your trip you will need to determine how much money you need to take. Use this currency converter link to determine how many pesos you will need.

4. Students will likely need some type of printable form to help them organize the information they are finding online – particularly if they are elementary or middle school students.

Here are some things to remember about the Evaluation section:

1. Don’t evaluate what is not assigned. Don’t assign tasks that are not evaluated.

2. Your evaluation rubric should have 4 or 5 different criteria that you are evaluating.

3. Make sure your rubric is written so a parent could understand it. In other words, will a parent know why his/her child made an “F” on the project? an “A”?

Teacher section:

Here your target audience is teachers. In this section, you will be sharing ideas on how your WebQuest page can be used. Also, provide instructions on what resources/tools the teacher will need, and how they could support learners during the process.

Please look at the example to get an idea what kinds of components that you need to include in the teacher section. http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/mywebquest/t-index.htm

In your teacher section, at least indicate the followings:

• Recommended teaching strategy including resources and processes
• Georgia Performance Standard
• Target learner information including grade level

Credits:

“We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author’s name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author’s name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date).”

Also include links to resources you used: images, etc.

Peer Review:

You are going to review one of your peers’ WebQuests project.

Take sufficient time to review your peer’s work and provide critical, yet constructive feedback.

Please download the peer review form and make it as your own Google doc.

Once you finish the peer review, please share it with me (ejgraceoh@gmail.com) and your peer whose work you reviewed.

For Thursday

1. Your WebQuest is due Thursday at the end of the class.
2. Finish your peer review and make sure that you share it.
3. We will discuss the to-do-list for your portfolio on Thursday. 

Here are more WebQuests examples for you.

Part one: Creating your WebQuest:

Now, let’s talk about creating the content for your WebQuest. How do you ensure that students will be engaged in your WebQuest activity? How will you design the entire process section for your learners? What are the major components of a WebQuest and what is the role of each in the learning activity? The Building Blocks of a WebQuest page will help you to better understand the purpose of each. So, how do you get started writing your own WebQuest?

As you might have already noticed, one of the main parts of a WebQuest is the Process section. The Process section is composed of the specific steps a student should take to accomplish the assigned task. The Process section also provides age-appropriate resources for students to use to complete their task. Finding useful resources requires more than just a Google search. Using vetted resources from reliable sites is important. Find some useful web resources for your students to use from Thinkfinity and K-12 Galileo.

The WebQuest Design Process flowchart created by Tom March is a great way to keep track of what you are doing. Now that you have an idea for content flow, how do you put it all together into a web-based learning activity?

Steps:

1. Define the tasks and roles students will play in our WebQuest.

2. Discuss some of the components in the process section.

3. Discuss how to create a rubric for the WebQuest based on the task description and the roles students will be playing. We will be using these links as resources:

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/rubrics/weblessons.htm http://webquest.sdsu.edu/rubrics/rubrics.html

4. You will be using this template for your rubric:

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/triton/july/rubrics/Rubric_Template.html

The only thing that is missing on this template is a row indicating the maximum possible points that can be earned. You will add a new row to this template.

5. Copy and paste the rubric into a word document. When you have completed your rubric, it is to be linked so that it opens as a word document.

Here are the essential questions to ask while you are working on your project:

• Does your WebQuest help your students’ critical and deep thinking instead of mere comprehension?
• Does your WebQuest help your students improve their research skills and problem solving skills?
• Are your tasks authentic, challenging, and doable?
• Do your tasks involve collaboration/cooperation/peer interaction among students?
• Do you provide sufficient guidance and resources for your students to accomplish their tasks?
• Is your process clear enough that your students would know exactly where they are at each step of the process and what to do next?
• Do your Evaluation criteria align with the given tasks?

Part two: Critical thinking

What is Critical Thinking?  

Critical thinking refers to abilities to analyze, evaluate, infer, interpret, explain and self-regulate. It is the ability to make good decisions and to clearly explain the foundation for those decisions.

Media Literacy 

Have you heard about Media literacy?  We have learned that there are so many Internet resources that you could use for your teaching and your students could use for their learning. Are they all relevant resources? As a teacher, you need to be able to evaluate the quality and reliability of the online resources and to teach your students how to evaluate online resources.

Here are some resources that you could use for evaluating online resources before you use them:

http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/valid.htm

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm 

What are the Critical Thinking Tools?

Spend some time exploring the tools in your chapter. Decide on one tool and write down what is the tool is about and how you could use it for enhancing your students’ critical thinking. You are going to share it with your partner.

For Tuesday: 

1. Think about the essential questions
2. Review the linked resources
3. Complete Introduction, Task, Process, and Evaluation sections. We are going to have peer-review session at the end of the Tuesday class.
4. Complete reading guide 6.  

Part one: What is a WebQuest?

What exactly is a WebQuest? What are its main characteristics? What are your initial reactions to WebQuests in terms of teaching and learning? What advantages and disadvantages do you see in teaching with WebQuests? What standards in your content area lend themselves to WebQuests?

Viewing exemplary webquests is a good way to get started on your own. Go to the main WebQuest page and click the words “Find WebQuests” on the left navigation bar. Using the Curriculum/Grade Level Matrix (in the middle of the page), spend a few minutes viewing 2 or 3 WebQuests in your content area.

Hopefully, you’re beginning to formulate an idea for a “hook” for your own WebQuest. It may be related to work you have already done in our class or work you are currently completing in other courses. It could even be something completely new in your content area. After you have some ideas review the WebQuest project description so that you are clear on what is expected. Before Thursday’s class, you’ll want to identify your WebQuest topic. Use this website to help you in the selection process. Also, view the WebQuest Taskonomy to determine in what category your original WebQuest will fall.

Generally, a good WebQuest topic should have some inherent complexity, such as controversial issues, multiple perspectives, unknowns, etc. The topic needs to have your students take information in and transform it, using their own judgment and creative problem-solving techniques –the learning should be authentic. Certain topics tend to lend themselves more to the WebQuest format than others.

Part two: Web-based resources

Let’s explore more web-based resources. What did you find? Have you had a chance to review resources that your peers found? Which one do you like? How would you use the resources that you like for this WebQuest project?

For Thursday:

1. Type a response to the following questions and bring them to class on Thursday.
■ Briefly describe your topic
■ Why did you choose this topic?
■ How will your WebQuest be tied to Georgia or national curriculum standards?
■ How will web resources play an important role in your WebQuest?
■ How will your WebQuest require students’ deep understanding or higher-level thinking instead of mere comprehension?
2. Review the linked resources above.
3. Explore WebQuests examples. 

4. Explore Web-based resources.   

5. Skim chapter 6. I will give you the reading guide on Thursday.

Today we are looking at a resource called  Thinkfinity: http://www.thinkfinity.org. It is full of resources for K-12 — any subject. We’ll try and hit the highlights. You can learn more from this video.

We’ll be using resources from this site for our 3rd “Think Like a Teacher” activity – but for now we just want to become more familiar with what is available on the site.

For Tuesday:

1. Watch the video above.
2. Spend some time viewing the resources available at Thinkfinity. Add any useful links to your delicious account.
3. Complete your web resources assignment

<<web resources assignment>>

1. There are many websites dedicated to teaching – sites about specific subjects, sites about the first year of teaching, sites about classroom management, gateway sites like Thinkfinity, etc. You’re going to contribute 10 annotated teaching resources to a class delicious account.

2. Search for your sites and add them to our class account – make sure to write detailed descriptions of what you found. To login to our account, go to: http://www.delicious.com and use the login: myfavoriteresources and the password: edit2000

3. Each of the 10 resources you find should be tagged with at least two names: your name (type it as one word, like: eunjungoh) and the topic (classroommanagement or newteacher, etc).

4. On your Google site page, create a page called “web resources”, write a brief explanation (a paragraph or two) about how you went about finding your resources and why you think they are useful. Then, provide a link to our class delicious account: http://delicious.com/myfavoriteresources

Your reading guide for the chapter 5 is due today.

By now you should have selected a curriculum standard for your second case, and completed steps one to three.

In class today, we’ll start sharing tools that you explored, brainstorming ideas for how you want to teach, and decide what solutions you will use. Today is the last working day for Case Two.

Your Case Two write-up is due Thursday, at the beginning of class. You will write a brief description of Case Two and link to it on your webpage.

For Thursday

1. Please continue working on your Case Two write-up. It is due
   Thursday.
2. Read chapter 4 and finish the reading guide if you chose to submit it.

“It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one.”- Alex Osborne

Your PPT game is due today. Make sure that you meet all the project requirement.

Part one: Creativity and Innovation

We’ve talked about the importance of communication and collaboration. What tools did you have students use to foster communication and collaboration in your first learning activity? Could those tools also foster creativity and innovation in your students? Or, are there other tools better suited for that job? Why is creativity and innovation important to your subject/grade level?

If you enjoy exercises in creativity, you might enjoy Alan Black’s Creativity Challenges. So, what does this have to do with technology integration? Are there tools available that will enhance students’ creative thinking? Are there tools that will enable students to share their divergent thoughts to a broader audience? What types of activities might be possible in your grade/subject area? What examples are shared at the end of Chapter 5?

Working independently, choose tools that are of interest to you from the list at the end of Chapter 5. Using a Google Doc, Inspiration, Webspiration, or a plain ‘ole sheet of paper, brainstorm ways you could use these tools for your subject area. We’ll be sharing them with the class.

So, what types of activities might be possible in your grade/subject area? What types of tools available that will enhance students’ creative thinking?

Part two: Think like a Teacher Two

Let’s start Case Two. You can download the packet here. Simply upload it to your Google Docs and rename it: firstinitial_lastnamecasetwo. Please note that the format of the packet is the same.

Browse your curriculum standards for a criterion that requires students to be creative and/or innovative. Begin work on steps 1-3. If you want to start to work on step 4, please do so. We will talk about steps 4 to 7 in class on Tuesday. Your Case Two is due on Thursday, April 9^th.

For Tuesday

1. Complete steps 1-3 of Think like a Teacher project by Tuesday. The entire project due is April 9^th.

2. Loot at everybody’s PPT Game. We will vote for a winner(s) on Tuesday.

3. Reading guide is due on Tuesday.

4. Explore tools in the textbook.

Today is an independent work day for you to finish up the PowerPoint Game. Today’s attendance can also be a makeup opportunity for one of your previous absences. While you are working on your PowerPoint game, please let me know if you have any questions. For your submission, make sure that you read the project description clearly so that you will include all the components that are required.

Other than your PowerPoint game file, you need to include the following components on your PowerPoint game webpage:

■ Provide a link to your game on your webpage

■ Include a short description of your game on your webpage

■ Describe your game

■ Include a screenshot of your game

■ Give examples of how your game might be used to teach a specific grade/subject

For Thursday

1. Your PPT game is due on Thursday.
2. Finish reading chapter 5. Complete the reading guide (check your e-mail).

On Tuesday, we will have an optional attendance day, which means I will be in the classroom, but you have a choice about attending. This is also an “attendance makeup day.” If you have missed a number of classes already, this is a great opportunity to make up an absence from the beginning of the semester. Come to the class if you wish to work on your PowerPoint game project with me. I will be there answering questions.

For Tuesday

1.  Keep working on your PPT based on comments from your Peer review.

2.  Tuesday is an independent workday (optional attendance day).