Monday, September 26, 2011
Webquest last class
Okay, so I blogged about the assignment we are supposed to do today? Woops. Last week was a lot of fun and I liked it and when I did the assignment that was supposed to do in class today, I definitely had a good idea of how to evaluate the webquests because of what we did last class. Plus, I had not ever seen a Webquest before and I really like them, so I am glad that we did it.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Webquest...What a quest!
So, I googled "music webquests" and I got a bunch of hits. I even found one site that listed several links to music webquests, and I mean around 50 links. I was very excited and started searching. I read all the titles and picked the one that sounded the most interesting. However, to my disappointment, the webiste said, "An Error Has Occurred" and listed four reasons why my site could not be viewed. "That's okay", I thought to myself. "I will just click on the second best option." So, I then searched for my second favorite choice, jazz musicians. I love jazz musicians, so I was psyched, but then..."The page cannot be found". "Oh geez, what a bummer!" I internally exclaimed for I was in the library. However, I did not lose hope, but I did lose organizational motivation. So I began randomly right-clicking on links to open them in a new tab. These was very unsuccessful and defeating. I only opened like five links that actually existed and then only about one of them was deemed worthy to use. "I could write a better webquest than this!" I pompously announced to myself. "You will one day. You will one day in your near future." This is what my mind wrote on an imaginary scroll. But for now, this is the webquest I chose to share with everyone: http://www.bestteacherusa.net/MusicWebquest/MusicWebquest.htm . The Breakdown:
Cons:
- It is not on its own individual page.
- When clicking on the links to other resources, not all of the pages worked. :(
- Not all of the external sites for resources were reputable pages (I evaluated them).
Pros:
-It does provide links to each section (Intro, questions, conclusion, etc.).
- Nice light color (a mint green) which is easy on the eyes.
-Cute animations (if you can block out the teacher sidebar which not be a problem on an individual page).
-Cute story in the intro section to give the kids a chance to use their imagination.
-Promotes teamwork and individual responsibility (has individual roles within groups).
-Provides the evaluation rubric that the students can have before evaluations.
-Provides individual reflection at the end of the webquest.
Follow-up:
If I used this Webquest in my classroom, I would probably keep the layout and assignment, but change a few of the external websites for resources to better webpages.
Cons:
- It is not on its own individual page.
- When clicking on the links to other resources, not all of the pages worked. :(
- Not all of the external sites for resources were reputable pages (I evaluated them).
Pros:
-It does provide links to each section (Intro, questions, conclusion, etc.).
- Nice light color (a mint green) which is easy on the eyes.
-Cute animations (if you can block out the teacher sidebar which not be a problem on an individual page).
-Cute story in the intro section to give the kids a chance to use their imagination.
-Promotes teamwork and individual responsibility (has individual roles within groups).
-Provides the evaluation rubric that the students can have before evaluations.
-Provides individual reflection at the end of the webquest.
Follow-up:
If I used this Webquest in my classroom, I would probably keep the layout and assignment, but change a few of the external websites for resources to better webpages.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Website Evaluation Link *For Kids*
http://bcrocke.tripod.com/webeval.html
Here is a link to a handout created by an elementary school teacher, Mrs. Bethel Crockett in Delaware. It is setup with the ABCDE steps for evaluating a website. It concisely covers all the important criteria that we discussed to be the most important. I chose this one because it is targeted for younger students, and these are the students that I worry the most about!
Here is a link to a handout created by an elementary school teacher, Mrs. Bethel Crockett in Delaware. It is setup with the ABCDE steps for evaluating a website. It concisely covers all the important criteria that we discussed to be the most important. I chose this one because it is targeted for younger students, and these are the students that I worry the most about!
Reflection: Evaluating Websites
This class assignment made me aware of the importance of a website's validity. I never really considered this through an educator's perspective, but I feel that it is truly very important. As educators we are responsible for everything that we expose our students to, inside and outside of the classroom. It is our responsibility to make sure that the supplemental resources that we refer to our students is safe and legitimate. Before I never thought to research the author of the page and make sure that he is an expert in his field. I have always been warned by teachers not to use wikipedia as a resource in research. This didn't make a large impact on my view of website validity, but after viewing sites with these objectives in mind, I understand the gravity of accountability and current revising. I think these are good requirements to keep in mind as we search as educators for educational websites.
Educational Website Evaluation
The website I evaluated is SFS Kids: Fun With Music. The site was created by the San Francisco Symphony Education Department and is free to all to come and explore. To get the most out of your experience with the site, they recommend that you install Flash5 and Quicktime because naturally it involves a lot with music. They provide links to go and download these for free and is very easy to understand.
My overall recommendation for this website in the use of a K12 classroom is very high. It is targeted towards K-5 students and meets every important qualification on the TPTE class' evaluation list and for my personal standards. For young children, an educational website needs to be easy to navigate and engaging and this website goes above and beyond in achievement of these goals. Its supplements also meet all of the National Standards required for K-5 music education. The music theory, which children may view as silly facts, are presented in such unique ways that the children are engaged and can assimilate the new information with things they already know. I am very happy to see this. For instance, the site encourages the students to imagine “measures” as being houses. This makes a lot of sense and they students will be able to relate and retain the information quickly and effectively. Plus, did I mention that it is a lot of fun?
I would definitely use this website in my own classroom. I've seen a teacher use educational computer games during downtime and during evaluation time. She would evaluate some students on an individual performance and have the other students to play on the games instead of having "dead time". I would def. use it in that form.
My overall recommendation for this website in the use of a K12 classroom is very high. It is targeted towards K-5 students and meets every important qualification on the TPTE class' evaluation list and for my personal standards. For young children, an educational website needs to be easy to navigate and engaging and this website goes above and beyond in achievement of these goals. Its supplements also meet all of the National Standards required for K-5 music education. The music theory, which children may view as silly facts, are presented in such unique ways that the children are engaged and can assimilate the new information with things they already know. I am very happy to see this. For instance, the site encourages the students to imagine “measures” as being houses. This makes a lot of sense and they students will be able to relate and retain the information quickly and effectively. Plus, did I mention that it is a lot of fun?
I would definitely use this website in my own classroom. I've seen a teacher use educational computer games during downtime and during evaluation time. She would evaluate some students on an individual performance and have the other students to play on the games instead of having "dead time". I would def. use it in that form.
Monday, September 12, 2011
My Wiki Experience
I really like Wikis. It reminded me a lot of Facebook with the sharing of thoughts and pictures and things... I really like Wikis in that it can be used in a group and I have actually had a teacher to use it just the last week. It made the situation a lot less complicated because it involved a lot of people in different classes to collaborate on a scheduling assignment.
I can see myself using Wiki in the future, especially in activities requiring group collaboration, such as parents creating a list of goodies to bring to a bake sale. :)
I can see myself using Wiki in the future, especially in activities requiring group collaboration, such as parents creating a list of goodies to bring to a bake sale. :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)