Wiki Me!

I'm back! I just attended a three day job alike conference at the International School of Budapest! My head is swimming with new ideas. But it is back to work on CEP 811!

So for this section I have created a Wiki and flooded it with media, although I had a hard time with this because I like to keep my cyber-spaces neat and clean. It is a work in progress.

I was supposed to edit my schools Wikispace, but it gave me the "stop here" warning below. I guess the firewall at my school does not allow that sort of fooling around. And kudos to Wikispaces for keeping everything safe in their world.

You will also find a screen shot of what I shared on MSU's MACUL space. I recently completed a project with my fifth graders on Voicethread so I replied to a topic about that.

Universal Design for Learning

For our 811 class we were asked to use the Universal Design Checklist and compare it to a lesson we created int he first session. The lesson I have been creating is a lesson designed for Grade 5 students to learn to use Google Calendar as a way to schedule homework, assignments and social events. Below you will see the attached .pdf's of the checklist (although we could save it electronically I found it easier to print it and hand write it while watching and participating in the session tutorials.). You will also find the new lesson plans, the highlighted areas being the parts that I added or changed after implementing the UDL approach. Here is a link to my checklist, the lesson plan and the lesson plan with highlighted changes.

Webquest Evaluation

Here is my Webquest evaluation for CEP 811.

This WebQuest called "Frankencreature!" is a lesson that creatively gets students to delve into the subject of adaptation by creating their own animal. It is intended for students from grades 6-8. The goals of “Frankencreature” are to explore adaptation and habitat from a different point of view. Instead of studying an existing animal, the students create their own creature, describe it’s habitat and describe how it interacts with other species specific to their habitat.

The creator of this website has used a sense of humor to keep the kids motivated. She has cleverly used “maniacal laughter” to put the students into the role of the ‘mad scientist” , a role that many students will enjoy. She has also allowed the students choice, which I find extremely effective. They are allowed to choose how they will present their creature which allows students to choose a presentation style they feel comfortable with. The task is easily and obviously labeled with 4 main topics (which are reflected in the assessment piece at the end). During the process section she has used a variety of PowerPoint’s, videos and links to teach and review the various topics she wants included in the “FrankenCreatures”. Students can browse through these resources as much or as little as they would like.

This Webquest has taken advantage of technology with its vast array of resources. It makes it easy for the students to find resources for the parts of the product that they are not as familiar with. It also allows them to choose which medium they will use to create their project. I do believe it would be more technological if the author had suggestions to use Glogster, Prezi, Voicethread or other online tools which are captivating to today’s student. I believe handing this out to students on paper would decrease its effectiveness by not having the immediacy of answers to questions via the web links and videos.

Unfortunately this Webquest needs a tune-up. Many of the links are broken. Her “super cool video” about cuttlefish no longer exists on the page, many of the web pages no longer exist and some are not as engaging as promised. Another criticism would be that although she shared it with the world, there are many parts where she has asked the students to check specifically with her, not generically just to their teacher.

My suggestions for improvement would be as follows:

1. Include an exemplar form a student.

2. Update the weblinks and videos.

3. Take the authors name out of the scripts and change to fit with any generic teacher.

4. Add mediums for the product (i.e.: Glogster, Prezi, Voicethread)

I really enjoyed this Webquest and it gave me many ideas as to what I would like to do with our final unit project for our Adaptation Unit.

MERLOT Evaluation

Here I will evaluate a lesson I found on MERLOT. I chose a lesson on WebQuests by Bernie Dodge as I have used several Webquests with my students and am interested in their usefulness and how to create my own.

Quality of Content:

This is a webpage that contains many different resources to learn to create a Webquest, find and use already created Webquests, search for Webquests, share Webquests, and read about Webquests. There are many resources provided within this site, from communities to solve problems, to instructional videos to PowerPoint templates. The community section contains a Ning, a Yahoo Chat room, and a Forum to share and problem solve about Webquests. It is a comprehensive website all about Webquests.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:

Webquests are an excellent tool for teaching students not only content but technology. They provide students with up to date material and an interesting, action-packed way to learning the content.
Instructors: Teachers and Instructors can use this website to learn how to develope Webquests easily using a variety of resources (templates, online tools-both paid and unpaid, videos) as well as using the shared Webquests as complete ready-to-use tools.

Students: Students of all ages (although probably starting with upper elementary) can use the tools to create Webquests and use the already created Webquests that are easily found with the search engine.

This website is targeted for all users and is focused upon Webquests.

Ease of Use:

The main page has a side bar that continues througout the site. It lists the following: Home, Find Webquests, Create Webquests, Share Webquests, Useful Resources, Community, Research, Bookshelf, News. This side bar makes it very easy to navigate through the site and return quickly to home. There is a lack of advertisement which makes it safe for students. Also the graphics and pictures are kept to a minimum making it easy to load and easy to find information without distraction. Under the Create Webquests there is an easy to use graphic that compares the online resources (and their costs, if any) that makes it easy to choose which way to go. There are also the basic PowerPoint templates for teachers or students who want to keep it simple.