Webquests

This week's articles are all about WebQuests. I remember doing WebQuests as far back as Elementary school. It was a time when I was new to computers as the up and coming technology and we did not own a computer at home; it was more or less a chance for me to explore and discover for myself what the world wide web was all about. Immediately, in the abstract in the article, A Good Teaching Technique: WebQuests, it stated that "the author first introduces and describes a new teaching tool called WebQuests to practicing teachers." (p. 109) After reading that statement I checked the copyright date and to my surprise I noticed that this article was from 2008. It surprised me in the fact that I had completed WebQuests at least ten years prior, so I was curious to know if WebQuests today were the same as when I completed them in Elementary school. I soon discovered that they described WebQuests exactly as I remember them as a student; following a set of specific instructions to gain knowledge in a particular area in a short amount of time. I can see how WebQuests are beneficial in the classroom, especially to help younger students who may be new to technology or even older students as a guide to help develop research skills in a set frame.

The second article, I Guess it was Pretty Fun: Using WebQuests in the Middle School Classroom, was similar to the first in regards to the fact that my basic understanding of WebQuests has not changed. It reiterate the fact that WebQuests are an increasing popular Internet tools used to help students in the classroom with research and technology skills. One thing I really liked about this article is the fact that it does not describe WebQuests as "busy work" which is one view point that can negatively affects its role in education. Helping students develop the right skills for find research on the Internet is a crucial skill that should be taught in school; seeking out good information over the bad (it reminds me of bad websites that are on the Internet to show students that just because it's on the Internet does not mean the information if right!!)

Classroom Websites

Using Websites Wisely was filled with tips and websites for teachers who are interested in using websites to accompany lessons. This article gave several websites and descriptions of the websites for teachers to consider using in their lessons. One point that the article mentioned was knowing what will benefit your lesson and anticipate any issues that might arise. I feel that these statements go hand in hand. First, teachers want to pick websites that are good as well as pertinent to the lesson; having students on a website that deals with three digit multiplication will not help students learning one digit multiplication. As far as anticipating any issues, I feel that this is something that teachers sometimes forget or over estimate their students’ abilities.

I am going to try to understand this article to the best of my ability as page one would not load on my screen. Making the Most of Your Classroom Website (from what I could read) based classroom websites on levels (1,2,3,4) Levels three and four were described as above and beyond websites that incorporated a mixture of resources and new literacies. One website I immediately think of is mrcoley.com. I feel that this website is frequently in the limelight about what a nice job Mr. Coley does to help his students outside of the classroom. I am anxious for class on Thursday to critique it and see if I can find another classroom website that is a level four.

Evaluating the Importance of Common Components in School-Based Websites: Frequency of Appearance and Stakeholders’ Judged Value did a very nice job of breaking down the components and thoughts that go into making a classroom website. It was a study based article that broke down its results into a chart that was easy to compare. It was interesting to see what information was included on some websites and not others. I also really liked that they included another chart to show the results of a survey giving to parents, students and teachers to see what each group felt was a necessary part of a classroom website.

Flickr

Chapter seven in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms touched on Flickr and its uses. I have heard about Flickr before but I was under the impression that it was a web tool for sharing pictures such as ShutterFly. I did not realize that Flickr was more than just the idea of sharing pictures with friends and relatives. Some positives that I learned about Flickr include the idea of being able to annotate pictures with audio as well as having the ability to post discussions about pictures. It reminds me some what of the albums on FaceBook (tagging, commenting.) The chapter made Flickr seem like it is also very user friendly. I am not sure that I like the fact that it deletes the account after 90 days of inactive use but I can understand why it is established that way.

The articles Photostreams to the People: The Commons on Flickr and Connecting the Dots: The Unexplored Promise of Visual Literacy in American Classrooms gave me more insight to what I already knew about Flickr as well as adding to what I had learned from the chapter. Again, it was reiterated that Flickr is much more than an online album. I also noticed that one of the pictures was captioned asking for help to determine the location of the picture that was taken in the 1920's. It reminded me of Wikipedia asking for help to verify the facts within the wiki. The second article really reached out to the visual learner, which I feel most times gets neglected in the older grades. Visual literacy also adds or corrects the way in which students view not only topics but the world. A student may visualize something, which is great use of the imagination but viewing a picture, video, etc. gives the student a correct image to build on.

Podcasting, Video and Screen Casting, and Live Streaming

Chapter eight in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms got in depth with the topics of Podcasts, Video and Screen Casting and Live Streaming. Before reading this chapter I was familiar with podcasts but have never used them before. While reading, I thought of the TV station my high school had that broadcasted the morning announcements everyday. I then wondered if podcasts were being used today to document the events of the school year. If you were an athlete it would be really cool to be able to keep all the broadcasts for your team; especially if it was a winning team. On pg. 113, the chapter discussed having an aggregator to upload new podcasts; this is something I did not previously know about. I think that this makes having listening to podcasts easier because you do not have to look through lists and lists and lists of podcasts. Video is something I am also familiar with. I remember one year in high school we had to make a video for my Spanish class. It was a lot of fun and interesting because it was something that we did not get to do before. I am also very familiar with Windows Movie Maker. Last year I went to Scotland to visit my best friend, when I got home I took all the pictures and videos from my trip and using Movie Maker I created a movie. I taught myself how to use the program and was able to include pictures, videos, text and music. I felt that it was a very user friendly program to use. Screen casting is something that is new to me but it seems that it would be very helpful in a classroom setting.

Podcasting in the Classroom: A Sound Success and The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling were both really good articles. Here are some things that these articles brought to my attention:

• Having students using iPods appropriately in the classroom can be a huge success
• Using Podcasts in the classroom can reach out and help ELL learners
• Technology and podcasts can be an attention grabber for all types of students
• Digital storytelling is much more than just a simple PowerPoint
• Reminds me of "mini movies"
• Opens several doors for new literacies and skills