Reflection on the process of creating the final product for TIE 542

When I think back to the beginning of the TIE 542 course when I first reviewed the syllabus I was really concerned about the amount of work that was ahead. I became even more overwhelmed when I found out that it was required that I learn DreamWeaver software and create a WebQuest. The DreamWeaver thing got me because I just get nervous about web design, for some reason, and WebQuest was an issue because I was unfamiliar but knew enough to realize how much work designing one would require. I didn’t know if I could do it.

Well, I did it. With the help of members of my cohort and my instructor I finished the final project and created something that I am proud of. I did learn the basics of web design using DreamWeaver, very importantly how to “Google” questions I may have regarding the software. I had true feelings of accomplishment when I was able to bring up the live site and have it look and function in the way I wanted. I also gained valuable experience with WebQuest evaluation and design. The evaluation of 10 WebQuests using a rubric I designed was helpful in designing my own. In the project I have created, students seek information by asking the questions about what kind of learner they are, what kind of intelligences they have, various strategies to help them learn and display their intelligences, and potential careers or vocations. The answers to these questions will develop over time for students and the information will serve them throughout their lives. Even though students are answering on-line assessments, they should also be questioning themselves in order to answer accurately. I also believe that my activity puts questions in context and in a framework. The questions are focused and the inquiry is at various levels from answering set questions to students questioning and determining how to best express themselves in light of their various intelligence(s).

The members of my cohort who acted as critical friends in the development of my project did so through providing their work for me to look at and also giving me critique on my work. One of the other aspects that helped me was during our class meetings I realized that some class members had similar questions to mine so I did not feel as if I was the only one who was struggling with one thing or another. I really look forward to building more diverse Critical Friend relationships professionally because so many of my colleagues and cohort members have areas of expertise that they are willing to share. I also believe that I have something to offer them as well.

Description and Evaluation of a WebQuest: "Presidential Advisory Commision on Life Threatening Food Allergies"

I found the WebQuest “Presidential Advisory Commission on Life-Threatening Food Allergies”
by Anne Blake, Wayne State University through Questgarden.com in the category of Life Skills grades 6 – 8. The purpose of the WebQuest is for students to take on roles of presidential advisers who are responsible for providing a Top Secret report to the President regarding keeping children with food allergies safe when they are at school. The role playing format and topic are what caught my attention. The fact that I can recommend this WebQuest to teachers at my school is why I am sharing it.



The visual appeal is simple but engaging. The color scheme is red, white and blue which goes with the theme and there is a presidential seal which makes it seem authentic. Navigation through the WebQuest flows easily; students should not get confused or lost though they should be told how to identify the hyperlinks because they are not underlined. The overall mechanics of the site are tight. All links are connected to a working site.

The introduction is engaging because explains to the students that they are working for the President of the United States (a pretty popular guy these days for some students) and gives them the roles of Surgeon General, Secretary of Education, Director of Homeland Security, and U.S. Senator. The topic is one that many students are aware of if not affected by – food allergies, so this should be interesting and motivational to students.

The task is connected to the areas of language arts (research, writing, reading), health/PE (food allergies), Life Skills/Careers (Professional Roles), Science (food allergies). The task is cognitively appropriate for the 6th – 8th grade students it is designed for thought the reading level of 7.2 may cause some difficulty for any students reading below level.

The Process is very clear and easy to navigate by students. It should require little explanation from the teacher/facilitator. The scaffolding of the activities is formatted so students work independently, then collaborate to share information, and finally create a presentation. The activities are rich and require students to use higher order thinking skills to answer real-life questions within a timely scenario.

The quality of the resources used by students in the WebQuest is very high. There is not a separate section for the resources but the hyperlinks to the various websites work. The sites are all credible, connected to reputable sponsors.

The evaluation section provides students with the rubric and criteria that will be used to grade them on their individual work in their roles, teamwork, and the final presentation. The criteria are somewhat too subjective, as students are not given quantifiable requirements.

Overall I thought this was an engaging WebQuest that could be used with students in my school. I mostly appreciated the role playing aspect, the timeliness of the topic, the learning activities, and the obvious work that the author put into designing it.

Description and Evaluation of Classroom 2.0

Recently, I was looking for more Web 2.0 resources and came across Classroom 2.0 a Ning (web platform for creating social networks) for teachers. Created and managed by Steve Hargadon of Lincoln, CA, this educator’s on-line social network has over 27,000 members. I submitted a request to join and was accepted into the network about 24 hours after. I am not sure what kind of criteria is used to decide whom to accept, but I guess I passed.





Classroom 2.0 has some very excellent features. There are links to several “hosts” who are available to help and answer questions posed by members. There are many resources for infusing technology into the classroom including tutorials on Wikis, blogs, and Elluminate software. A member can create and select the appearance of his or her own page, add colleagues (like a friend on Facebook), join and create groups and share photos. We can add blog posts and start discussions. Discussions that are already in progress can be accessed based on what kind of technology tool they focus upon, by topic or school subject, or by areas (AUP, administration, Internet Safety, etc.). We can also join groups delineated by schools, subjects and topics and other categories as well. Live conversations (through Elluminate) are outlined on a calendar and include Professional Development in the areas of EdTech Talk, and Classroom 2.0. Members receive e-mail alerts for events. There are also Wikis containing podcasts and videos organized by various topics, including how to create Wikis. Members can also submit and present their own workshops using the Wikis format. LearnCentral.org, Elluminate, Wiki Spaces, VoiceThread, and Diigo sponsor classroom 2.0.

This is not an endorsement for membership in Classroom 2.0 because I have only been a member for a short time and have not had a chance to do any in depth exploration. I am looking forward though to using more of the resources and to making some connections with a wider network of teachers who share my interests and may have expertise in the practice of using technology and specifically web 2.0 in the classroom. You might want to check it out for yourself. If you do, add me as a colleague.

4teachers.org a Valuable Resource for Teachers

I recently spent an afternoon acquainting myself with the http://4teachers.org resource site. Sponsored by the Advanced Learning Technologies (ALTEC) Project through the University of Kansas, this site is designed to help teachers “locate and create ready-to-use web lessons, quizzes, rubrics, and other tools” for classroom use.



Links for professional development resources include:

• Video channel for UTube and Teacher Tube.
• teachstrong.org - online professional learning community for educators which is a NING with various groups based on interest.
• Profiler Pro – is a tool that evaluates the knowledge, attitude and skills of members of a group to help determine the best way to divide human resources.

The “Family of Tools” on the home page has links to:

• QuizStar
• RubiStar
• Arcademic Skill Builders - educational on-line games that help develop basic skills.
  
• PersuadeStar – gives students the opportunity to produce on-line persuasive essays.
• Classroom Architect – allows students to create floor plans of the classroom.
• Equity Index – a database designed to locate resources and tools to help meet the needs of a diverse classroom including rubrics, educational links, and web links by various categories including assessment, assistive technology, disabilities, English language learners, gender, grants, legal issues, multicultural and religious, and special needs including a place to nominate sites.
• TrackStar – On-line lesson and activity collection that allows teachers to create or select already created interactive online lessons and units.
• Assign A Day – teacher created calendars to help manage classes and assignments.
• Casa Notes (in English and Spanish) – provides templates for notes that go home such as permission slips, homework, and student contracts.
• PBL Checklist
• Teacher Tackle Box – provides links to WebQuests, ThinkQuests, and TrackStars on select topics.
• WebPoster Wizard – on-line tool for school projects and reports that allows teachers to create a lesson, worksheet or class page and publish it on-line and students can then create their own reports on-line.
• NoteStar – is a resource to help students with their research skills for projects.
• ThinkTank – helps students develop a list of topics and subtopics for reports and projects.
• KidsVid – is a site to help students and teachers use video production in class to support project based learning with links for scripting, making video, video editing, and presentation.

The page/tab for Integrating Technology offers Spanish resources, success stories from teachers and students, and technology assessment that provides resources to assess technology planning.

The page/tab for educator resources includes: assessment, assistive technology, grants, bilingual, professional journals, technology planning, and tutorials. There is also a tab for http://4kids.org a similar technology based page for kids.

4teachers.org provides resources that teachers can use at several levels. I encourage you to visit if you are not already familiar with it. If you have visited this site, how would you rate it? What are your favorite features? Have you ever used any of the tools and if so, how was your experience?

Criteria for the evaluation of web based materials.

Some of the basic criteria for evaluation of web-based materials include: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage, content, resources, and presentation. These criteria are important to consider when evaluating sites for personal, professional, and educational investigation and should be used by educators and students when using and/or creating Internet or web resources.

Here are some questions/information to consider:

• Is the author someone I have heard of or someone who was recommended or cited in a valid resource?
• Is the page sponsored by a reputable organization?
• Is the information reliable? This may be difficult to determine if the topic or subject is new to the reader.
• Does it address the topics of interest?
• How deep does the information, analysis or thought go based on the needs of the audience? Is the site appropriate only to present facts or to encourage new ideas and arguments?
• Is the content appropriate for me, my colleagues, friends or students, depending on the audience?
• Is the information presented in an objective or unbiased manner?
• Who are the advertisers and how might they influence the information?
• Is the information up to date, how often is the site updated?
• Are the links current?
• Is the information presented error free?
• Is the site attractive and engaging?
• Is the site interactive?
• Are sources and related resources provided on the site?
• Ultimately, is the information provided useful?

Now many of these questions are answered with little work on the part of the reader/visitor to the site. Others require deeper analysis and thought. Some determinations come from initial exposure and others may come after completely reading, revisiting, discussing and comparing the source to others. The evaluating of web-based resources is an ongoing exercise and one that must be presented to, modeled for, and taught to students through various web based learning activities.

The sources I used to compose this post were: Evaluation Criteria from "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly or Why is it a good idea to evaluate web resources, Evaluation of Information Sources, and Evaluating Web Resources.

I am sure there are other criteria that I overlooked or may not know. What additional criteria do you use when evaluating web-based resources or what criteria do you find most important? What strategies do you use to help students evaluate these resources?

Reflections on Educational Internet Resources

When I consider valuable Internet resources for education it helps me to divide the various tools into:

 Resources to help students learn and teachers teach.
o Online images, shared video and audio files.
o Interactive educational web sites – especially those connected to text books and other in-class resources, classroom blogs, shared documents, chat, online encyclopedia and dictionaries, etc.
 Resources to show what students know or have learned.
o Electronic portfolios, Blogs, Wikis, student created web sites, youth media pieces, etc.
 Resources that can help with preparation and evaluation.
o Professional blogs, social networks for educators including Nings, book-marking sites, online assessment sites, and professional web sites.

I find the amount of Internet resources for education to be nearly unlimited and the value nearly priceless. One almost has to find a niche using specific resources of interest or spend countless hours experimenting with different tools. The former would be the optimal experience but sometimes difficult. Being a working wife and mother and graduate student, my “experimental” time is limited.

Blogs are currently the most valuable resource for me because of the format of providing information or sharing ideas and then receiving feedback from other interested parties. Classroom or student blogs give teachers and students experience in using this format to address concepts covered as part of the curriculum and other topics of interest. Students have an electronic forum to share their knowledge and opinions and read and evaluate those of their peers. Through blogs students develop and display their reading, comprehension, analysis, evaluation, and writing skills just to name a few. Educators participate in and/or create their own blogs to share information, opinions, ideas, resources, and sometimes, just vent. I have noticed in discussion with other educators who use Internet resources that they too prefer or find the most value in one or two specific tools such as Wikis, web site development, Google docs, etc. These resources are valuable and the teachers have become experts in using them and rely on them more because of the results and learning goals met by students.

Ultimately, the value of Internet resources in education is correlated to how effectively they are utilized and ultimately the result in student learning. I don’t want to blog my students to death and I believe that they should be exposed to several appropriate, relevant and valuable Internet tools that will positively affect their learning.

What do you consider to be the most valuable educational Internet resources and why? What successes have you had using them with students and how did you know your students learned from them?

Problem Based Learning

When developing a Problem Based Learning (PBL) Activity begin by reviewing the PBL Template:

Students should understand the problem by:

Meeting the Problem: Provide written document (usually a letter or e-mail from yourself or someone who is connected to the problem) that explains the problem and specifically states what students are expected to do and consider in there efforts to solve or address the problem.

Know/Need to Know: Students should participate in brainstorming and discussion of what they already know about the problem and what they need to find out in order to effectively address or attempt to solve the problem.

Define the Problem Statement: This step can be tricky but it is important to have a complete and understandable problem statement so students will know how to focus their efforts. It helps to be able to pull the problem statement directly from the "Meet the Problem" document.

Problem Statement Format:
How can we (state specifically what learners have been asked to do)
in such a way that (include any criteria that must be met as outlined in meeting the problem.

How can we implement problem based learning with students in such a way that they meet learning standards and goals, they address problems that are relevant to them, they create authentic work, they participate in an authentic and relevant assessment.

The next level is Exploring the Curriculum
At this level students will:

Gather information (this is a good place to implement technology resources)
Share information
Generate Possible solutions
This level should be student focused, with the teacher acting as coach/facilitator. Utilizing grouping is essential at this level.

The next level is Resolving the Problem

At this level students or student groups and the group as a whole will:
Determine the Best Fit Solution(s): Determine the product/artifact they are going to create (examples: brochure, multimedia presentation, brochure, activity or event).
Present the Solution: This is their authentic artifact that you will assess.
Debrief the Problem: Review and reflect upon the event(s) through peer and personal assessments and critiques.

What are some of your ideas for PBLs, please include your grade level? Do you have anything to add to the information in the post that would benefit other teachers? What questions do you have related to PBLs? Your feedback is valuable!