Creating a WebQuest: It's Easier Than You Think

Starr, L. (2000). Creating a WebQuest: It’s Easier Than You Think. Education World. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech011.shtml

In this introduction to WebQuests, Linda Starr takes us through what a WebQuest is, why it is helpful for your classroom and gives us resources to help us make our own. According to the creator of the WebQuest concept, a WebQuests is “an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners in drawn from the Web” (Starr, 2000). WebQuests are designed to help students use their information in relevant ways instead of just looking for it.

WebQuests are very useful for the classroom, Starr argues. They allow imagination, use problem-solving skills and promote discovery in the classroom. WebQuests also encourage group work, collaboration and critical thinking to solve guided problems. WebQuests can even help special education students find meaningful roles in group projects.

Some WebQuests are better than others. WebQuests are supposed to be thought out and planned in order to optimize student learning. WebQuests should be designed to help students work independently and holding the teacher role to only a facilitator in the project. Information on the WebQuest should be relevant and all links put on the site should work.

Starr gives a formula for creating a WebQuest. She suggests looking at other WebQuest pages to get ideas for how you want your WebQuest to look. One example she gives is Bernie Dodge’s WebQuest Page (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/) which gives six building blocks for creating a WebQuest: the introduction, the task, the process, the resources, the evaluation and the conclusion. Making sure you have all of these parts is important to providing a quality WebQuest.

Samples of WebQuest outlines are also available, such as Sample WebQuest Development (link is broken) or Prewriting Your WebQuest (http://www.tommarch.com/learning/prewrite.php). After finding an outline, you can begin to work on each of the six essential parts. The topic should be something that of course, fits into your subject, but also something that interests you. The task is the meat of the project and provides the goals of the project. If the task is unclear, students may be confused and independent learning may be compromised. The process is also very important. This provides students with a guideline of how to perform the task. It is important to make the process easy to understand steps in order to ensure students are completely the task correctly. The resources should be creative and relevant to your topic. Make sure all of the links work! The evaluation should be carefully thought out because all students participating in a WebQuest will not learn the same things. Starr gives two sites that offer sample evaluations including Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestrubric.html) and WebQuest Evaluation Form (this website’s link was broken).  

I thought this article was very helpful for anyone wanting to create their own WebQuest. Some of the links were not working however, which was disappointing. I did enjoy Bernie Dodge’s website and thought that it provided important information. 

A School That's Too High on Gizmos

Welsh, P. (2008). A School That’s Too High on Gizmos. The Washington Post. Retrieved from  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020803271.html

In this article, Patrick Welsh examines his own T.C. William High School, a school with state-of-the-art technology and low teacher moral. The school’s building cost around 98 million dollars and is one of the most expensive school buildings ever built. T.C. Williams boasts natural light, ceiling-mounted LCD projectors, fancy cafeteria, security cameras, and even a rooftop garden. Although student behavior seems to have improved, Welsh explained, teacher moral has been the lowest he has seen in years.

The reason Welsh gives is what the superintended calls “technolust” or what others have called a “gizmo high” (Welsh, 2008). Administrators feel the need to get the latest and greatest gadgets whether teachers need them (or want them) or not. Although science and math teachers claim the traditional projects are superior for what their classes need to do, they are not allowed to use them. An example of the extravagance the school has promoted is the “school pad” which allows the teachers to underline material on the screen from around the classroom – an almost 500 dollar gizmo that saves only a few feet of walking to the computer. While headlines are being made about the amount of technology the school possesses, teachers are concerned about whether or not it is helping the students learn. In many classes students are actually playing video games instead of paying attention to the lesson. Class time is wasted when tech problems arise, and the school constantly has to update their computers when new technology comes around.

Welsh claims that this is not only negatively effecting student learning, but is also discouraging new and talented teachers. Teachers are overwhelmed with having to work with the technology and not being allowed to teach in their own style. Administrators, Welsh says, have turned a deaf ear to complaints and are still trying to push computers as the key to student learning. Welsh worries that face-to-face contact has been replaced by emailing, taking away the personal relationships teachers have with their students. He also worries that the quick answers computers provide discourage students to actually think and go through steps in a process.

Some schools have already abandoned projects that push too much technology while others are making sure that the technology they provide is something the teachers want to use and can use to improve student learning.

This article brings up an important issue: no matter how many fancy gadgets you have, students can’t learn without carefully planned out lessons with goals and objectives. I have personally been mesmerized by technology before and it is good to be reminded that it is only a tool. Schools still need well-trained teachers and good goals/standards to ensure the tool is being used correctly. 

Logging History: Students as Archivists

Ball, A. (2003). Logging History: Students as Archivists. Edutopia. Retrieved from  http://www.edutopia.org/montanaheritage

In this article, Ashley Ball takes a look at a high school in Libby, Montana that is participating in a project called the Montana Heritage Project. This lumber-mill community has had ties to the logging industry for over a century and when the town’s largest employer, Stimson Lumber, shut down their mill, it was very painful. The logging way of life started to slip away, but thanks to the Montana Heritage Project and students at Libby High School, history was preserved.

English and history classes have taken the Heritage approach to learning and have ignored the usual textbooks. Instead, students learn through their own local history and at the end of the year present their finding in a fair called Heritage Night. Students collect photos, stories, interviews, and information about the mill-town culture of late. When the mill closed in 2003, students were able to hand out records to each employee of why they were important to the community.

Students also gain a perspective of the outside world. Heritage classes visit places like D.C. where students have actually tried to submit their stories to the Library of Congress. The project also brings the students from communities that are sometimes a hundred miles apart closer together. Students are able to understand other communities by looking at their Heritage websites and come together in conferences. In a conference in Helena, students get to meet with historians, present their projects to each other and try to be the one town that gets selected to present their project in Washington D.C.

The project follows a model called the ALERT Model (Ask, Listen, Explore, Reflect and Transform/Tell). Teachers are given a large amount of resources and rubrics continuous development and innovation makes the projects better each year.

The idea for this project really hits home for me because I also come from a small logging town. We did a similar project on our personal family histories called “Cultural Fair” where students presented their projects to the public and winners were selected to participate with an exchange with a school in South Seattle. Although I learned a lot from Cultural Fair, I think I may have been able to get more out of a project like this one. Our logging and farming culture was also quickly disappearing and I think it would have been extremely valuable to have students involved in preserving that culture. I hope to be at a school that would participate in such a project. 

Women Lose Ground in It, Computer Science

Nagel, D. (2007). Women Lose Ground in IT, Computer Science. The Journal. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2007/11/06/women-lose-ground-in-it-computer-science.aspx

In this article, David Nagel reports on the lack of women participating in informational technology and computer science. According to National Center for Women & Information Technology, women are a small minority in the IT and computer science and that minority get smaller as students continue into higher education (Nagel, 2007). Nagel claims that girl on average have more experience in math and engineering during their K-12 education but less than one percent of those taking their SATs state that they would like career in IT or computer science (Nagel, 2007). In all science related AP tests, girls were only a majority in the Environmental Sciences, Biology and Psychology categories. While women received 60 percent of all degrees, only 11 percent of B.A.s in computer engineering and 15 percent of computer science B.A.s were women.

Nagel reports that the reason women may not be interested in pursuing careers in IT or computer science is because they don’t properly understand what the careers in those areas entail. Nagel points out a study in a calculus class that said only two percent of their students could accurately describe what a computer science major was. To solve this, teachers must be aware of how they are presenting these subjects and make sure they appeal to a wide variety of learning styles while breaking down misconceptions.

The trend, unfortunately, is continuing and less and less women are taking degrees and/or getting into professions in IT or computer science. The higher the position goes in the profession world, the worse the numbers are for women. Some researchers point to an environment of “ridged hierarchies that emphasize the power of individual leaders and attention to task performance rather than outcomes” (Nagel, 2007).

In order to encourage more female participation in these careers, workplaces must be aware of the problem, empower their women with resources and recognizing their skills. Workplaces must also create an environment where cooperation and sharing of information and power is as equally important as individual performance.

Although I previously knew of the great disparity between men and women in the sciences, I had thought that this gap was closing. It was surprising to me that the gap was actually widening in the areas of computer science and IT. I think it’s important to be aware of this when we as educators teach technology. We must not misrepresent what working with technology is like and make sure that our teacher appeals to a wide range of levels and learning styles. 

Laptops for All: Using Technology to Go Beyond Traditional Curriculum

Furger,  R. (2001). Laptops for All: Using Technology to Go Beyond Traditional Curriculum. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/laptops-all

In this article, Roberto Furger examines a middle school in New York that supplies laptops for each of their students. Mott Hall Middle School teaches students 425 students in the 4-8^th grades. The school has a majority of Hispanic students and is considered a math, science and technology academy. Before 1996 when the school supplied their first class with laptops, Mott Hall was a traditional institution. Parents and teachers saw the possibilities that laptops would provide for their students and agreed on a joint payment plan for the laptops. Over five years the school developed a pilot project and now Mott Hall is one of the leading examples of how technology can broaden horizons for children.

The laptops are used in many different ways, especially for projects. Examples given are attaching the laptops to a temperature probe for science class, creating scales or models for math or physics, finding pictures for social studies projects or reading poems for English. Multimedia presentations are created, play chess with other students that are out of state (or even out of country) and digital photo albums are created as graduating projects to show to the high schools they are applying to attend.

According to Furger, simply giving students laptops will not necessarily improve student learning. In the model that Mott Hall has given us, teachers are trained on how to use them in projects and collaborative planning is stressed in order to make the most out of the new technology. Clear goals and objectives help students better understand their tasks and allow teachers to easily asses their students’ work. Detailed rubrics show students how the project will be graded and how each component fits state standards.

Mott Hall continues to find new ways to use their technology. Teachers at the school are helping students create their own electronic portfolios. New grants are allowing staff to experiment with new ways to approach project-based learning. The program at Mott Hall has worked so well that more schools in the area are copying their methods and a new school named Mott Hall II opened in 2001.

This article brings up the important fact that technology alone will do little in a classroom. Not only do teachers need to be trained but well thought out student-centered plans must be created in order to keep everyone on track. The ideas for projects using laptops would be great for classrooms that have that kind of technology and tech support. 

Tech Without Support: IT Snags Hamper Schools' Technology Use

Moses, A. R. (2008). Tech Without Support: IT Snags Hamper Schools’ Technology Use. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-school-technology-support

Alexandra R. Moses explores how schools that lack technical support for their classrooms cannot use the technology available to them to their maximum potential. Moses claims that almost half the teachers surveyed by the National Education Association said that lack of technical support at their schools affected their use of technology (Moses, 2008). This is the reason why, Moses says, tech support is “setting the speed limit for how fast new technology makes it into classrooms” (Moses, 2008).

With funding being short, schools have found creative ways to solve their tech support problems. One example given was that of Zion-Benton Township High school in Illinois where a club called the TechCrew spends time after school fixing computers. Some of the club members are allowed to come back to work for pay during the summer. Another example is the Mouse Squad which trains students in Chicago, New York and California to help install programs, set up printers and do other computer maintenance work. Although skeptics worry about allowing too much computer access to students, proponents of the programs say that a lot of work can be done under guidance and boundaries. Teachers have also been used as stand-in tech support in schools. This can overburden educators, however, who already have heavy loads.

While these are all options if funding is no there, Moses argues that eventually all schools are going to need sufficient tech support in order to take advantages of the new technological advances. Some districts in states like Virginia are already putting mandates in place. According to Moses , the idea situation would be a mix between official support and teachers who have technological know-how.

This article brings to light a problem that will mostly likely become increasingly important. As we see smart boards, online classes and other technologies become the norm, tech support will not just be a nice asset, but an essential. It is also good to know about alternatives if one finds themselves at a school that does not offer tech support. 

Student Exchange, Without the Jet Lag; Educational Collaboration in a Virtual World

Baedeker, R. (2007). Student Exchange, Without the Jet Lag; Educational Collaboration in a Virtual World. Edutopia. Retrieved from  http://www.edutopia.org/student-exchange-without-jet-lag

In this article, Rob Baedeker looks into how students in California high schools are getting to know their Japanese exchange students before they get on a plane using Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual world where students create avatars for themselves in a world that the users create. The avatars can communicate with other avatars using Second Life and students from all over the world can get acquainted without the travel.

In a project called Pacific Rim Exchange, students from Modesto, California and Kyoto, Japan have connected through several virtual islands in the Teen Second Life Grid. This grid is apart for the larger Second Life arena and is restricted to ages 13-17. After meeting in the program, about twenty students from Modesto visited Kyoto on their spring break and then about fifty students from Kyoto visited Modesto in the summer.

Realizing that videoconferencing brought logistical difficulties because of the time differences, teachers at the Modesto high school bought land on the Second Life Teen Grid with virtual money (this money is called Linden and can be purchased using U.S. dollars at changing rate). The teachers then build the skeleton of a layout and a welcome center. Students from each city were then invited to join the world, explore it and collaborate to build its environment. Collaboration project ideas could include building a bridge together or maybe a famous building.

This island also posed as an environment for the kids to post picture, videos and information about their cultures. A chat bar is available with a Japanese-English translator to help students communicate. Language skills could be enhanced during the exchange as well.  Baedeker points out that the possibility for this kind of virtual world are “vast” (Baedeker, 2007). Math teachers can ask students to use their algebra and geometry to build roofs on virtual houses, physics teachers and play with gravity by dropping their avatars off the virtual earth, history teachers can ask students to have their avatars dress up in period clothing and more.

I love the seemingly endless possibilities posed by this virtual world. I have always thought of Second Life as more of a game and time waster rather than a teaching tool. I really like the idea of students from different cultures meeting each other through this program. It takes away the slow processes of writing, sending and waiting for letters in a pen pal system. The only drawback to this is that you would have to connect with a school who had access to this kind of technology and it would leave a lot of really interesting places out of the picture. 

Why Wikis?

Reynard, R. (2009). Why Wikis? Campus Technology. Retrieved from http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/02/04/why-wikis.aspx

In this article, Ruth Reynard explores the ways in which Wikis can quickly and efficiently meet the current learning goals in the classroom. Reynard explains that Wikis can not only supply the information but help the student incorporate the information into their own knowledge structure and use it in relevant situations (Reynard, 2009). Wikis do not just supply information, but encourage the student to participate in the “understanding and application” of that information (Reynard, 2009).

Reynard gives several examples of how Wikis can do this. The first example is that of collaborative writing, a challenging project that involves technical writing skills along with collaboration skills. A Wiki can provide “an integrated authoring, editing, annotating, and feedback environment where every thought, every idea, and every modification can be captured, re-assessed, and integrated into a developing whole” (Reynard, 2009). Just asking the students to collaborate is not enough, but the Wiki can provide the place and tools to do this while the teacher gives guidance and feedback.

Another example given was public ideas. As opposed to “owned” ideas, public ideas do not belong to one student. Students must view the ideas objectivity for this to succeed. Once this happens, however, the ideas can be made public, changed and worked on so that they can become something different. Wikis can help teachers with this process by providing the right environment. Each student is able to contribute and as modifications are made, the information can expand to new ideas and perspectives. As Reynard writes, “this is discovery at its best” (Reynard, 2009). While Reynard warns teachers not to use Wikis as an excuse to lessen oversight and direction, she does encourage educators to become familiar with the processes so that they can use this new tool effectively in the classroom.

This article was very insightful to me because I had never thought of Wikis as anything else as a shortcut to quick information. These ideas for the use of Wikis would be great in a social studies or language art class where discussions and forming of ideas take center stage. One idea that came to mind while I read this was having groups form their own laws by way of Wikis. I hope to be able to put Wikis into action in my class someday. 

Podcasts: Where's the Learning?

Deubel, P. (2007). Podcasts: Where’s the Learning? The Journal. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2007/06/07/podcasts-wheres-the-learning.aspx

In this article, Patricia Deubel discusses what podcasts are, what their role in learning is and what could be done to improve how they are used. According to Deubel, the term “podcasts” comes from a combination of “POD” (playable on demand) and “broadcast”. Podcasts are defined as “audio files on the internet” (Deubel, 2007) and can be downloaded from various websites such as ITunes or Podcast.net. Listeners can either subscribe to a series of podcasts or buy them individually. Some podcasts are offered for free. Podcasts can be played on any equipment that can play an mp3 file.

Educators at times used podcasts to make available lectures to students who need to review the material. Sometimes online classes will use podcasts as a way of getting information to their students. Deubel points out that many times the quality of the podcast is poor and subtitles are not provided for students with hearing disabilities. For Deubel, these challenges do not make podcasts unattractive for the educator and podcasts can positively affect student learning.

Deubel writes that students can develop literacy skills while making their own podcasts. Students are more engaged and podcasts can be useful for students who want to find additional information on their subject. Deubel offers other ideas for the uses of podcasts such as “updates on class news, report on field trips, record a class discussion, conduct interviews, share book reviews, and review curricular content” (Deubel, 2007). Students at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska created their own series of podcasts just for kids called Radio WillowWeb (Deubel, 2007). With guidance students can create their own podcasts to perform a story, add to morning announcements or recording their own notes (Deubel, 2007).

This article was interesting because it brought to light new ideas for using podcasts in the classroom. Podcasts can be used for much more than lecture recordings. With a little help, students can create a lot of great projects. I especially enjoyed the example of students creating their own podcast series. This is something you could do with any age and any subject and really get children involved in what they are learning. 

New Technologies Link Ancient Cultures

Ellis, K. (2002). New Technologies Link Ancient Cultures. Edutopia. Retrieved from:  http://www.edutopia.org/new-technologies-link-ancient-cultures

This article focuses on the First People’s Project, a cultural exchange program that covers five continents. Students from indigenous origins are able to share their stories, poems, art, photographs and videos by posting them online and mailing them back and forth between schools.

Students involved in the project are encouraged to research an area of their own culture and interview elders in their group. After gathering information, students create their own artwork or take pictures/video of dances, sports, chanting and other cultural activities.

The project not only has help students reconnect with their own heritage, but also has sprung an art exchange and humanitarian effort. After watching a video about the poor conditions of a school in Thailand, students decided to help out by sending blankets and raising money for teacher aides, school supplies and even a generator.

Another benefit not specifically mentioned by neither the article nor the video that accompanied it was the student’s interaction with technology and how that has helped them become familiar with computers and the internet by using a very personal and motivating project.

I personally thought that this idea was great and I would love to see it implemented in my own school district. I also thought it could be an excellent class social studies project and instead of just focusing on indigenous people, we could have each member research their cultural heritage and present it with art and words on the internet. 

Teaching Special Kids: Online Resources for Teachers

Starr, L. (2010). Teaching Special Kids: Online Resources for Teachers. Educational World. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr139.shtml

This article is a great summary of resources for teachers who have children with special needs in their classroom. Although the abundance of information makes searching for answers difficult and overwhelming, the websites featured here are helpful and easy to use. Sites  highlighted in the article offer not only help teachers better understand their special needs students, but also provide simple modifications, lesson plans and activities that can help make life easier for special needs students (and their teachers).

The first groups of websites presented are sites that include helpful lesson plans that include special needs students. Examples of these are the Special Education section of Teachers Helping Teachers, (a site that offers lesson plans for ages K-12), Special Needs, Special Kids (a site that offers information about specific disabilities and additional educational material) and Very Special Hope Page (a site that provides free home pages for children and adults with disabilities).

The next set of websites summarizes are websites that specialize in information about special needs children. Sites overviewed included Misunderstood Kids: Outside the Box and it’s Especially for Teachers page, and Modifications for students with Tourettes Syndrome, Attention-Deficit Disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (which provides information about simple modifications that can be made to the classroom to make life easier for students with disabilities). Other pages listed were Behavior Home Page, United Cerebral Palsy, The Arc Home Page, 50 Tips on the Management of Attention-Deficit Disorder, and Suggested Classroom Interventions for Children with ADD and Learning Disabilities.  

The article also gives a couple sites with information about assistant programs that will help teachers with special needs students. The two sites included were Assistive Technology Training Online Project and Virtual Assistive Technology Center.

The article also added on several more additional websites that had general information on children with special needs. These were Internet Resources for Special Children, Family Village (the School section), The Instant Access Treasure Chess, The Foreign Language Teacher’s Guide to Learning Disabilities and Office of Special Education (from the University of Virginia).

After reviewing several of these websites, I found most of them to be very helpful, informative and easy to navigate. I especially like the Teachers Helping Teachers site that included how to arrange the classroom, bulletin boards, and classroom introductions to best suite students with learning disabilities. It also gave great tips for the first day of class as well as general survival tips for the classroom. Overall I felt that the article gave great information about the sources available on the web. I will be posting the links to the sites featured in the article on my Delicious account. I will hopefully be posting a like to Delicious on this blog soon. 

Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities

Reynard, R. (2009). Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities. Campus Technology. Retrieved from http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/07/22/Beyond-Social-Networking-Building-Toward-Learning-Communities.aspx?Page=1

Reynard’s article addresses the increasingly popular trend of social networking online and its value as a teaching tool in modern classrooms. Although she does not discredit previous research about using social networking for learning, Reynard does point out that it is only the beginning of a more complex issue. The article states that unless the class is directed by intentional interaction from the teacher, learning communities are not formed and the hoped-for sharing of ideas does not happen. Reynard also reminds us that teachers need to be careful to approach social networking with learning goals in mind and not to intrude on students’ social space. With these cautions, Reynard urges the reading to embrace the numerous skills gained from participating in social networking including simulation, collective intelligence and negotiation skills. She also encourages teachers to use a multitude of technological tools such as blogs and wikis to enrich the learning experience of students.

I believe Reynard’s cautions about the boundaries of social networking in the classroom are extremely important for future teachers. Setting up a Facebook account or class website and leaving it alone will not do much for learning and may even leave to problems. Teachers need to remember that if they are going to partake in this endeavor, they must be willing to put in the time and effort to lead constructed conversations in order to foster a positive learning environment. Another important comment was the warning about letting social networking becoming too social between teacher and student. Not only will it be “creepy” for the students, but will walk a fine line legally. Overall I thought Reynard’s article to be an important reminder of how complex the process of learning with social networking really is and how the research has only just begun to explore its possibilities…which is both exciting and a little nerve-racking.