Rubric for Classmate's Webquest

Here is the web address I used for my rubric:

https://sites.google.com/site/shellsilversteinwebquest/home 

Criteria	Accomplished (3)	Developing (2)	Beginning (1)	Score & Comments
Introduction	Engagingly describes a compelling question or problem.	A question or problem is described.	The purpose of the WebQuest is unclear.	2  I would have gone into a little more detail on the introduction.
Task	Task is doable and engaging, and is connected to learning in the real world. It elicits thinking that goes beyond rote comprehension.	The task is doable and elicits higher order thinking but is not relevant to students lives.	Task requires simply comprehending or retelling of information found on web pages and answering factual questions.	3 The task is stately clearly.
Process Checklist	Every step is clearly stated. Most students would know exactly where they are at each step of the process and know what to do next.	Some directions are given, but there is missing information. Students might be confused.	Every step is clearly stated. Most students would know exactly where they are at each step of the process and know what to do next.	3 However, the task is written in the form where the teacher would be reading it.
Resources	There is a clear and meaningful connection between all the resources and the information needed for students to accomplish the task.	There is some connection between the resources and the information needed for students to accomplish the task. Some resources don't add anything new.	Resources provided are not sufficient for students to accomplish the task.	3 Good examples of resources.
Formative Assessment	Webquest begins with a formative assessment that assess student understanding of content outlined in CSO.	Formative assessment comes close in assessing student understanding of content outlined in CSO.	Formative assessment does not directly assess student understanding of content outlined in CSO.	3 Good job on the webquest. I think students would have fun with this lesson.
Evaluation	Criteria for success are clearly stated in the form of a rubric. Criteria include qualitative as well as quantitative descriptors.	Criteria for success are clearly stated in the form of a rubric. Criteria include qualitative as well as quantitative descriptors.	Criteria for success are not described.	3 This is a successful webquest!
Visual Appeal	Appropriate and thematic graphic elements are used to make visual connections that contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships.	Graphic elements sometimes, but not always, contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships.	Color is garish and/or typographic variations are overused and legibility suffers. Background interferes with the readability.	3 Good use of illustrations from the author’s books. I like the color scheme.
Navigation	Navigation is seamless. It is always clear to the learner what all the pieces are and how to get to them.	There are a few places where the learner can get lost and not know where to go next.	There are more than 5 broken links, misplaced or missing images, badly sized tables, misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	3 Navigation seems relatively simple.

Web Quest Evaluation

I was the technophile.

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Gorillas	Bright colors, good web sources, links in different color.	I would have like to see more interactive links. Maybe finding a webcam that observes some gorillas, or have sound bits through out the website. There was no standards on the teacher page. There was also not of interaction for the students. If they were going to use this site, they would have to use paper and pencil to write things down.
Shakespeare	Fascinating links, bright colors, encouraging students to use powerpoint to combine information they found; standards visible on the teacher page, good variation of pictures	I would have liked to see maybe a few examples of students work on the teacher page.
Earthquake	The strengths on this website is that there are plenty of links for the students to use for research and such.	I would have liked to have seen maybe a program on the website where the students could see a video of building structures and/or a program they could use to make a visual model of their building.
Foreign Country	The students get involved in researching a country, collaborating the information, and putting that information into a powerpoint. It also helps the students work on their persuasive voice, because they are playing the role of “travel agent”.	I think the way the web quest is set up, it gives the illusion that this would not be a great group exercise. However, with some thought, they could divide the information categories amongst their peers.
Waves & Sound	I liked this website a lot. I think there is a variety of pictures and a good setup.	I would like to see a change in the color scheme. I think if there some bright colors mixed it, it would help the kids focus on the task.

Wikipedia in the classroom?

Last week, my instructional tech class had a lesson on Wikipedia. With the information that has been presented about this online encyclopedia, I am still on the fence about allowing students to use Wikipedia. Even though there are ways to make sure this site is credible, there is still a chance that students could possibly end up with false information.

If I were to use Wikipedia in the classroom, I would show them how to make sure information is credible. I would not suggest to them to use it as research.

Wiki... WHAT?

a. What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profi organization.

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”?
Many people have different views on how reliable a source is when anyone can edit it. The person looking for the specific information should always cross reference the information.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?
The owners of Wikipedia put their trust in the "wisdom of crowds," believing that by having many people watching what appears there, errors and vandalism will be weeded out, sooner than later.

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?
Larry Sanger left Wikipedia because he believed that experts of these many topics should have more authority.
e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page?
Abuse of vandalism on Wikipedia would look like false information.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal?
With Wikipedia publishing their 2,000,000th article and being translated in 280 languages, it shows that Wikipedia is one of the fastest growing and most popular forms of research in the world.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?
I think Wikipedia is so successful because of it's wide range of topics and the fact that it is in so many languages. It allows for more people to use it to look up many different things.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?
They don't want to clutter up the website with ads.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?
It allows the workers of Wikipedia to check the IP addresses of anonymous editors of the site to make sure they are credible sources.

Dog Island... not real!

Dog island

View more presentations from Erin McDaniel.

The Dog Island.... Is it true?

We are doing an activity where we have to evaluate a website and see if it is a credible website. I chose to evaluate the website on "Dog Island".

Name of page: Dog Island Free Forever
Address/URL: http://thedogisland.com/
Date Accessed: April 1, 2011
How did you find the page: My teacher had a list of websites for us to choose.
What is the domain: .com
Do you feel the domain type helps add or lessen the page's crediblity? I feel the .com domain lessens the credibility because since it is a .com domain that means anyone could have created this website.

There appears to be no author on the main page of the website, but I did however find a name Soong Lee, who is the director of Import.

There is a contact Dog Island page on the website, with some pretty crazy email addresses.
I don't know how I feel about the author being qualified to present the information on the website. From reading the bios of the different people assoicated with the website, I don't think they have very much experience or training with dogs.

From the information that has been presented and the fact that the same information changes throughout the website, I don't think this is a very credible website.

Results from Survey

Here is the results from the classroom survey!

Classrom Survey... Please answer question!

Skyping with the 5th grade

We are skyping with a local 5th grade and they have asked us to answer some questions.
My questions are:

How can you tell if someone on a blogging site is really who they say they are?
If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is not true. Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is really who they say they are on the blog, but if the person asks for your information from your blog then they probably aren't who they are. Also you can ask your parents to help you figure out if they are true.

^{How would you use social networking sites with your students?
I would social networking to enhance what we would be learning in the classroom. We would use sites like Portaportal, Edmodo, maybe even Facebook to share our work together. We could even use these sites to show our parents our work and also let them get involved in the classroom.}

Edmodo... Collaboration in the 21st Century

Edmodo: a online collaboration to which allows students to engage with other students from different places.

For the past couple of weeks, my instructional technology class has had the privilege of engaging in the writing activity with a 5th grade class from a local middle school. The task was for the students to write a portion of a story, and then 3 or so people from my class would write the next part of the story. The student from  the middle school would choose the part they wished to add to their story. This continued for several more rounds of writing and choosing. At the end of last week, the students then wrote their final drafts with the portions they had chosen. 

We also designed a magazine cover of what a education magazine would look like if we were to win teacher of the month. We uploaded the covers, and the students voted on which one they liked best. 

This was all made possible by the help of Edmodo. 

Everyone, including the teachers of the classes, seemed to enjoy using Edmodo to do collaborative work. 

I think the 5th grade students' number one reason for liking Edmodo for their writing is because we could read their writings and make comments on it. It also allowed them to explore their creativity more, because the students in my class gave them "prompts" in how to expand their portions of their stories. 

Their favorite activity from using Edmodo was the collaborative writing activity. They enjoyed having older people read their writing and give them feedback. I think it was my favorite activity too, because it allowed me to help build their self-confidence and show them that if they use just an ounce of imagination, they can accomplish so much!

I learned that Edmodo and other online collaboration is something that can be very useful in the classroom, and should be explored even more. The young students do appreciate any feedback that is given to them. It makes me feel good knowing that I was able to help a student express his or her creativity. 

If I were to use some form of collaboration in the classroom, it would possibly be another writing activity  like the one I participated in with this class. Writing is something that is becoming "outdated" and I feel that if it is instilled in students that writing stories as they get older, they will become better well-rounded individuals. Also, they will be able to develope their skills in accepting comments about their work from other people because they will have that experience with using Edmodo. 

A Tale of Two Pictures

 

 These two pictures were from news articles about the Gulf Coast Oil spill. I was asked to give my interpretations of these two photos. As far as which picture made President Obama look more concerned, I would have to say the top one. The look on his face is very solemn. His eyes have a very distraut look about them. As someone who works behind the camera, I know how important it is to accurately convey the message I am trying to get across. If you cloesly look at the bottom photo of Presiden Obama on the ship or whatever, you can see that he has a cheerful smile on his face. If your country had just experienced a major

catastrophe, a smile is something that people would want to see.

As far as how much control he looks like he is in, I would have to say neither. The the top photo, it looks like the president is in an office setting, not really doing alot. And the bottom photo, it seems that he is on a ship, but we, as the audience, don't know if it is in the Gulf or a different location. If I were the photographer and wanted to show that the President was in control, I would have shown him helping the countless bodies who helped clean up the oil spill, or shown him talking to the people of BP. I know we have all heard the cliche, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Well, a pictures is also worth alot when trying to convey a message.

Digital Literacy and Traditional Literacy... One Big Family!

There has been debate after debate on the classroom topic of digital literacy. Some professionals think that digital literacy goes hand in hand with traditional literacy... however, other think not so much. I have to go with the first group. With the 21st century pressing forward, it is becoming apparent how technological our world is becoming. It is important that the students of tomorrow are digital literate along with being traditional literate. And in reality, how can you have one without the other. Students need to know how to find info while not using a computer or the internet, but they should also be taught how to de research while navigating the world wide web.

Magazine cover

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

Digital Photo Story

In my Instructional Technology class, we had to create a digital photo story for one of our favorite teaching quotes. Here is mine!

Digital Story: The New Essay

Digital stories are becoming more popular in the 21st century classroom. In the past, teachers would make their students write 10 or 15 page papers on different subjects. Due to the massive amount of page requirements, students tend to focus on the length and meeting the demand, rather than the actual material being studied. However, if teachers go down the technology route, they can have students make digital stories, and incorporate the information the students have gathered on a certain topic. The students, then, can focus on the main concepts of the topic and include the most important information into the story.

I also think that if digital stories would become the new way of making essays, the students attention span would more than likely last longer, because their focus would interested in the changing scenes of the digital story,  rather than all the words that would be written in the essay. It would also hold the interest of other people.

Another bonus to digital stories: no more printing 15 pages papers... we can finally save the trees!

Are textbooks becoming extint?

As a student in the 21^st century, it is becoming apparent that textbooks are slowly becoming a thing of the past. These several hundred page paper weights are becoming more of a pillow for kids than a vessel to be used for learning. They are becoming handcuffs for some of today’s most creative thinking teachers. How can teachers design lesson plans that are fun and engaging if they are being tied down, by the out of date words in these expensive books? Teachers should have the option to either use the textbook or not. The benefits to not using textbooks are endless… more ways to make the lessons easier for the students to learn, greater attention spans, more money to use to create a variety of lessons. Why should the teachers and students be bogged down with material that will be outdated within the next year? In my most humble opinion, the textbooks are becoming extinct, just like the dinosaurs.

Greeting classmates!

My name is Erin McDaniel, from Bridgeport, WV. I am a student at Fairmont State University, studying to be an elementary/art teacher. If I could teach any grade, I would like to teach 2nd grade. When i was in elementary school, my favorite teacher was my 2nd grade teacher. She made learning fun and enjoyable. She made connections with her students. I feel I can make teaching fun and not some kind of boring thing that kids dread doing. I feel that if students have fun learning, their capacity to learn increases. I would have different hands on learning stations set up for the different units we are learning. I would also teach them about different cultures, so they can begin developing into well rounded individuals.