Elementary WebQuest Evaluations

1.  Which example WebQuests listed are the best ones and why?
        ---One of the best is "Unraveling the Underground Railroad" because it has a lot of information presented, and it has a lot of visual aids.
        ---The other best one is "Grow School Greens" because it has a great use of moving images, and it provides a lot of useful information.

2.  Which two are the worst and why?
        ---One of the worst ones is the "Ancient Egypt" WebQuest because it is very plain, and all information is listed on one page.
        ---The other worst one is "Where is My Hero" because it doesn't show many ways for groups to be involved, nor does it give specific directions for group members.

3.  What do best and worst mean to you?
        ---Best and worst to me are determined by how eye-catching and attention-grabbing the WebQuest is.  Good requires the WebQuest to be able to grab and keep a student's attention. For a WebQuest to be one of the worst, it doesn't give clear direction or clear expectations.

WebQuest Analysis

THE ATTITUDINIST

Your Impressions

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Saving the Gorillas	This covers good specific details for the scientific processes of collecting the information.  There are also a lot  of resources listed to give direction in finding the important information.	There are a  lot of opinion statements within the first few pages of the site.
Shakespeare	There are a lot of useful resource links on each page, directing the student to use information well.	There is really only one area that allows students to show themselves through their assignment.
Earthquake	This WebQuest allows the student to do a hands-on activity; and it also allows for multiple angles on a certain topic to be viewed.	The WebQuest shows the standards that are presented in the lesson, but isn't very clear in showing which links on the left side are actually a part of the assignment.
Foreign Country	There are several links to other pages that can provide more information on this project, and more insight.  It allows for new information to be found, not just information recall to occur.	This isn't very visually appealing to the student.
Sound	This WebQuest gives very explicit direction, and very good resource links.  This also allows for feedback that goes to the author.	Introduces a new topic only by stating "***New Topic***"--instead of bold wording to easily differentiate between topics.

Activity Evaulation 11/9/11

• Does this activity differ from much of the activities you engaged during your K-12 education? How? or How not? Give examples.

                    A lot of the activities I completed throughout my education were basic, run-of-the-mill, boring worksheets and essays.  There was one activity we did in eighth grade that was similar--we had to video conference with an earthquake/volcano tracking lab on an island in the Caribbean, and we had to create a disaster relief and evacuation plan for the island.

• Is your learning style addressed in this activity? How? Give me an example.

                 Yes, I am a very hands on, creative, and visual learner--this activity would allow me to cut out pictures and research things that I am interested in.

• This project was implemented without the use of textbooks. Are you surprised? Are you interested in teaching in a similar way when you become a teacher?

                  No, I am not surprised at all. I really hope that I can do a lot of my instruction with limited use of textbooks--I feel like students connect to the material more if it is tangible, rather than written to them from a "I'm better than you" kind of attitude textbooks tend to have.

•  What are your concerns and what do you anticipate as being barriers?

                     A lot of times, with learning a language, there are certain graphs and charts that need to be seen up close by the students in order for them to see the information accurately.  I feel like avoiding those charts in a text book would make instruction more challenging for the teacher, but would also connect the students to the information more readily.

Blogging Questions

1. What do you like or dislike about keeping a blog for this course?

                I think it is very convenient for us to be able to turn things in; as well as being able to have help, advice, and comments from classmates is very helpful.

2. How can keeping a blog make you a more effective teacher?

                Blogs help with easily spreading information to different types of learners—visual, audio, and even hands-on learners, by sharing interactive activities with students.

3. Will you consider continuing to post to your blog after this course is over? Why?

                I would like to think that I would continue using my blog, and using blogs in general for instruction.  I feel like it can be a very useful resource to share information with students and the whole world.

I feel like networking is probably one of the biggest benefits of blogging. It makes information much easier to share, and access.  It allows students and instructors the ability to view, share, and find new information more easily.

Wikipedia Questions??

(Not sure why it wouldn't let me copy this right from my Word document, so I took a snip of it.)

TodaysMeet Comments

These are some of my comments/responses from our chat on Monday. :)

My Comment---