WebQuest

My role is the Affiliator.

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	Student work in groups to do research, and can split up into roles. They can easily take turns with the roles.	No weaknesses found.
Where is My Hero?	This is a group project. They talk about the information they found together and design a poster about qualities of a hero together.	Each student selects a different famous person. Information is shared after research is done.
Underground Railroad	This is a group project. Each student will have a different role.	The student will research only his role. Could be done without the group. Information is shared after research is done.
Ice Cream	This is a group project. They must decide on a flavor together and work together to design a poster. Students work together to make the ice cream.	The worksheet is done independently.
Ancient Egypt	Students work with a partner to do research and present their brochure.	A lot of work for only two people. Could be done in larger groups.

 

 

I think the two best WebQuests are the Ice Cream and the Grow School Greens. I think these are the best because they promote the most group activity. Grow School Greens is completely done in groups and the Ice Cream WebQuest only has one worksheet that is done independently. The rest is done in a group.

 

I think the two worst WebQuests are the Underground Railroad and the Ancient Egypt WebQuest (I also think the Where is my Hero WebQuest isn't that great.) The Underground Railroad says it is for a group, but I feel it could also be done independently and the same knowledge would be gained. The Ancient Eqypt WebQuest is bad because it is a lot of work for only two people. I would make the groups about 4 or 5 people instead of 2. The Where is my Hero WebQuest is not that great of a group project because most work is done individually and shared after.

 

To me the best WebQuests are the ones that involve the most group activity. And a bad WebQuest is one that could be, or is, done individually. If most of the work is independent it still is not a good one, even if they share their research with a group after.

 

Autobiography

Autobiography

View more presentations from MStambaugh.

Can't we just watch the movie? [Double Entry Journal #12]

Quote: "We must teach communication comprehensively, in all its forms. Today we work with the written or spoken word as the primary form of communication. But we also need to understand the importance of graphics, music, and cinema, which are just as powerful and in some ways more deeply intertwined with young people's culture. We live and work in a visually sophisticated world, so we must be sophisticated in using all the forms of communication, not just the written word."

Reaction: George Lucas makes a good point here. In school, we rarely discuss how graphics, music, and cinema influence us. When the fact of the matter is, these things are just as influential, if not more, than the written or spoken word. More kids today are watching movies and listening to music than they are reading a novel. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just a change with the times. Education must reflect this. Maybe start assigning movies (that are well written and produced) about the same novel that the students will only pretend to read. While I am on the "the movie is never as good as the book" team, this could be something to debate if it is substitution worthy.

Related resource:

Sources:

Daly, J. (n.d.). Life on the Screen: Visual Literacy in Education | Edutopia. K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work | Edutopia. Retrieved November 10, 2011, from http://www.edutopia.org/lucas-visual-literacy

Kids and Reading : Books for Kids. (n.d.). Online Books Store | Buy Books at Tradus Books. Retrieved November 10, 2011, from http://tradusbooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/kids-and-reading-books-for-kids.html

Glass Giant

Banning Sex Offenders [Double Entry Journal #11]

In this article, the author, Larry Magid, is saying that the Illinois law banning anyone on the sex offender list from all social networking sites will be ineffective and is not just. He points out that many people on the list aren't what most people would call a "sex offender" and that the law should worry more about the ones that haven't gotton cought.

The edivence he provides is substantial. He lists some of the more ridiculous reasons a person might be considerd a "sex offender" and states that only 8 cases out of 9,934 of children who were sexually abused started out online.

When you hear "sex offender" you automatically think "rapist!" But, as this article points out, this is not always the case. Two teenagers engaging in sexual activity can be registered (29 states), as can someone who flashes or streakers- which is not unusal on a college campus like WVU (32 states). Should those people be banned from websites because of one night when they went a little crazy? I think the real issue here is not about banning sex offenders from social networking sites, but what classifies someone as a sex offender. When the definition of "sex offender" becomes more realistic and accurate, the laws regarding such things will be made more appropriate. Instead of debating about should sex offenders be banned, it should be what makes someone a sex offender. In my opinion, it's not someone who urnitates in public - how many guys do you know that have done that? (13 states) I mean, come on now.

Magid, L. (n.d.). Social-networking ban for sex offenders: Bad call? | Safe and Secure - CNET News. Technology News - CNET News. Retrieved November 3, 2011, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10309421-238.html

Wikipedia Worksheet - Greek Mythology

1) This article or section has multiple issues. - No

2) This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. - No

3) The neutrality of this article is disputed. - No
4) The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. - No

5) This needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. - No
6) This may contain material not appropriate for an encyclopedia. - No

7) This article only describes one highly specialized aspect of its associated subject. - No

8) This article requires authentication or verification by an expert. - No

9) This article or section needs to be updated. - No
10) This article may not provide balanced geographical coverage on a region. - No
11) This is missing citations or needs footnotes.- No

12) This article does not cite any references or sources. - No

13) Is it written in a clear and organized way? - Yes

14) Is the tone neutral (not taking sides)? - Yes

15) Are all important facts referenced (you're told where they come from)? -Yes

16) Does the information provided seem complete or does it look like there are gaps (or just one side of the story)? - Complete

Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe

1) Did the class activity about Wikipedia and this article change your opinion about the value of Wikipedia to society in general and education specifically?

- No. Maybe I'm just stubborn but I stand by my opinion that Wikipedia is a good tool for research. I like Wikipedia because it's a good starting point and it's convenient because information that used to take 3 sources to find can now be found on one page. For example: say you are doing an article on Alexander Graham Bell. One source might give you his personal life, another his inventions, and a third his work with the deaf. If you only look at one source you would only get one of those topics. But Wikipedia gives all three plus more. I'm not saying Wikipedia is the best thing on Earth and we should throw books away. I'm just saying it's a convenient way to START your research.

2) Describe how you might direct students to use wikipedia in your future classroom.

- These would be my directions: Wikipedia is a good starter sight. You can get info there and then check it somewhere else to verify it. It helps your research if you know what you're looking for. Don't cite Wikipedia, cite the site that you found the same fact on.

Wikipedia

a. What is Wikipedia? 
- Wikipedia is a web-based encyclopedia. 


b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”
- Not very reliable. They could be providing false information.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? 
- The article says they depend on the crowd to weed out misinformation

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? 
- He believed they should give more authority to experts.

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? 
- Words containing bias or opinions rather than facts. 

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? 
- Wikipedia is growing all the time

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? 
- It's convenient because everything you want to know about a subject is on one page, other than having to look at several pages to get the information.  

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? 
- They want their site to look legitimate and advertising could make it seem like their pages are biased. 

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?
- It allows the IP address of submitter to be checked. This exposes people putting false, or biased, information.