Evaluation of Inquiry-based lessons

When we were introduced to the idea that we would be creating an inquiry based webquest for our final project I knew I needed to figure out a good topic that I could tie into my 5th grade curriculum. I went back to my teacher manuals and to our district curriculum map and determined that I definitely needed to focus on the topic of Volcanoes and Earthquakes. I have to admit that I don’t know a whole lot on this topic and when we got our new science curriculum this past year I had no idea what I was doing. I knew that I was going to have to spice up that unit a lot if I was ever going to keep my students interests.
Having the assignment of creating a rubric and evaluating other webquests was a little intimidating to me at first, but once I got the rubric written and started dabbling in the world of webquests I started to get really involved. I mean I have to admit that I worked on this particular assignment for hours. Like, until 2:30-3ish in the morning, hours. But after I checked out what was out there I decided it would have been very helpful if some of the creators of these webquests would had do participate in the same assignment that we did. I found many different formats of webquests out there. One of the webquests was purely directions to creating a working volcano. I had trouble finding true inquiry based webquests. There were a few that really required a lot of research on the part of the individuals but not a whole lot of higher order thinking. Maybe I have been expecting a lot out of my 5th graders, but there were a few webquests that were written for middle school and high school students that I though my students should have no trouble tackling. One in particular were fantastic.

http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/RagingWaters/index.htm

This particular webquest was actually written for high school students. As I read through the requirements I kept thinking that this was a really cool task. The students were being asked to determine what, if any, effect do natural events that occur in one region of the earth have upon other regions in general and upon California in particular? The students were being asked to research different natural events and find out what happened as a result of the events. Then they were asked to bring all of their research together and create one final report on their findings. Not only was this project asking them to use some higher order thinking but it was also asking students to work together and use their writing skills. Even though this webquest was written for high school students I know that this past year, my students would have been able to tackle the assignment and would all have come out in the end with some great inquiry based learning.

Evaluating intriguing educational Web 2.0 applications

I wasn’t too sure what web 2.0 applications were so I decided to do a google search. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many educational web 2.0 applications there are available for us to use in the classroom. The part that I really liked was how user friendly they all were and that most of them were free. The only thing you have to do is create a user name and password to be able to access the applications.

www.searchme.com This is a cool application that allows students to find web sites on the topic that they are researching. Very user friendly and even lets you add your favorites to a folder for you to go back to later. I really like how you can link right to the source from the searchme site.

www.Thebroth.com is a place where students who are artistic can go and safely chat online with other students while working on different pieces of art. The site is free and when I read the terms of service I noticed that it seemed to be a very safe place for kids to go.

Bookglutton.com this is a site for avid readers. This site allows a reader to read books on line and then post comments about what they have read. It also allows people to upload their own writing and allow others to read and comment on it. I think I might need to join this one. ☺

Fo.reca.st/surveys/home is a place where you can create your own surveys and allow others to respond, on your own web browser. This tool is something that can very easily be accessed by students in your classroom. This is a neat way to have students use their technology skills and tie it to the content area.

Pixton.com is a very cool site that allows you to create online comic strips. After you have created a series of comic strips you can even get them “published” by putting them into a virtual book.

www.awesomehighlighter.com/ is a very neat application that allows students to conduct their research online, highlight the important points and then print only the parts that they have highlighted. This is a tool that could be used to help with teaching note taking, and summarizing for research projects.

Now these are only six sites/applications that I have come across while searching for educational 2.0 applications. I know that there are many, many more and I have to admit that I will need to spend much more time investigating them.

Materials that are relevant to my interests

Since I have been little, I have loved to work on any and all different types of craft projects. I can remember being in 3rd or 4th grade and asking my Aunt to teach me how to knit. I wasn’t able to figure it out back then but today I can work my way through a pretty good scarf or afghan. I have to admit that I actually prefer to crochet but knitting is all right as well. I grew up in a house where my dad fixed everything and I have to say that I always wanted to be right there while he was working on whatever it was that he was working on. Obviously you can guess that I have taken after my Dad. If there is a problem, just ask Kristen because if she doesn’t know how to fix it she will find out how to fix it. ☺ I have never been afraid to try to figure something out. If I don’t know something, I get on the web and type it in. Usually a few sites come up that will help me learn about whatever it was I was looking for. For example, I was trying to figure out exactly what Web 2.0 meant the other night and finally decided to google it. I was pleasantly surprised when plenty of information came up to help me. The wealth of information on the web is phenomenal. This being said, I am not sure that I could narrow down to a few sites that I have become partial too. If you were to look at my bookmarks, you would find that there aren’t too many there.
A major interest of mine is reading. I will read any and all genres. Because I have a tendency to read through a book so quickly and don’t seem to ever re-read them I have tried to stay away from buying books. But I do spend time browsing through Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and cbd.com to find the latest release that I may be able to catch at the library.
Another interest of mine is spending time with family and going camping. I grew up in a family that traveled extensively all over the U.S. and pulled our pop-up camper behind. I have many fond memories of all of the different places that we have been as a family and now that I am older spend time on the web looking for new exciting places that we as a family can go and visit. Right now, my family is up in Minn. in the boundary waters. We found some really great places to stay and some really interesting lakes to fish and hike by looking on line. But again this is an area that needs to be done as a general search as well. So google comes in handy for me pretty often.

Evaluating web-based materials

How do we evaluate the material that is on the web? That is a very tough question to not only think about, but to also answer. The wealth of information on the web is unbelievable. Whether it is accurate or not is a whole different issue. I am the type of person who generally likes to believe someone or something until it is proven incorrect. In general, this is how we all want to be treated but when it comes down to material on the web, we need to be a little bit more cautious. Since the web has broadened so that so many different individuals can publish information, accuracy has gone by the wayside. People publish their own opinions because they can, but our students take it as facts. Being able to teach not only ourselves but also our students how to search safely and accurately becomes just as important as one of the basic subject areas.
Baer with me because here I go again on my soapbox about how important it is for the LMS to spend time teaching our students the important techniques of evaluating the material on the web. State standards and district requirements are putting a huge weight on the classroom teachers shoulders and with limited time and larger class sizes it is getting harder and harder to meet these requirements. I have to again be honest when I say that the last thing I have time to do is go down to the computer lab and try to get all of my kids onto kid safe sites so that they can research a project on a Social Studies or Science topic. When it comes right down to it, it just seems easier to bring in the books. If my students were to learn what all of the different extensions mean and what are some fairly reliable sources, I would think we would all benefit from the wealth of information on the web. Since I myself am not sure what all of the extensions mean, how am I going to teach them to my students. Our building has teachers who have been teaching for 30 some years and are upset because they are being required to check their email once a day; how are we to expect their students to get the education about the web? If the LMS and the classroom teachers were to work more closely, I think some of these issues would be solved.

Thoughts about Internet Resources

When I think of the immense amount of resources available on the Internet, the first thought that comes to mind is about quality and reliability. Don’t get me wrong, just like anyone else, I love the fact that I can jump onto the Internet and find something about just about anything. I have to admit that when I first talk to my class about a research project I mention the fact that we will not be getting onto the computers for at least the first two sessions. They moan and groan and ask why and then we as a class have a discussion about how time consuming looking on the Internet can be. Even the kids know that doing research on the Internet can lead them astray. Most of the time I have already spent hours going through Internet resources and web pages looking for quality and quantity for my kids. Even when I give them the option to move onto the computers for research, they stay with the books that have been checked out of the library. Now I know that part of the reasoning behind this is because I have already encouraged it; but I also know that some of the kids just get so bogged down with all of the material on the web that they don’t know what to do with it.
Our district has been extremely blessed with the amount of technology that our students can be exposed to but I have to say that we as a district have also done them a disservice because we have not taught them how to utilize it. Our building has a computer lab with 32 desktops available for classroom use and my classroom has 3 desktops and 7 laptops available. I know that the 5th grade classroom computers get put to great use because they are constantly needing to be re-imaged or being looked at by a technology person, but I have heard from the library media specialist that there is hardly ever a class down in the lab. This makes me very sad because again, like I said before, we are not allowing our students the opportunity to become familiar with what is out there. I also know that this is not because the staff is unfamiliar with computers and what is on the Internet because most of the staff at our school has gone through the district tech training. I feel instead that most of the classroom teachers try to avoid going on the Internet because of the time factor. We are being pressed on all sides to teach this and make sure that you cover that topic that I think we run out of time. Another reason that it is crucial for the library media specialist to get involved and teach our students how to make the most of the Internet.