Journal Post #6

It's now week six! Can hardly believe it! So chapter six Teaching with Educational Websites and Other Online Resources is a very interesting chapter. I really had a hard time deciding on the focus question to choose. I really feel that all the questions in this chapter are essential to know and discuss. But I decided to choose Focus Question #4. I decided on this question because we will be creating a WebQuest of our own for an assignment and well, I thought it would be neat to discuss WebQuests and how they help us teach. 

Focus Question #4:

What are WebQuests and virtual field trips?

·      WebQuests and virtual field trips are innovative and engaging Web-based teaching methods that can be used at all grade levels.

·      WebQuests are virtual journeys where students visit a group of preselected websites in order to explore academic topics by accessing online digital text, pictures, audio, and video.

·      Virtual field trips allow teacher sand students to visit places around the world as part of their academic studies.

Webquests are designed so that students will explore multiple options for content learning as they complete a series of tasks. WebQuests include the following stages:

·      Stage Setting: Introduction by the teachers before the students begin the activity.

·      Task: Activities students will be expected to do or create while on the quest.

·      Process: The step-by-step instructions they will follow throughout the quest.

·      Evaluation: How the teacher (and possibly the students themselves)  will assess if the members of a class have successfully met the requirements of a quest.

·      Conclusion: Summary of the key understandings of learning goals that were embedded in the quest. 

In designing a successful WebQuest there are four considerations:

·      Who are your students and what are they capable of doing successfully?

·      What are the primary ideas you wish to teach?

·      How will students at different skill levels productively work together?

·      Is technology integrated seamlessly into the assignment?

Now lets discuss taking Virtual Field Trips-

Virtual field trips literally take the teacher and the student all over the world and back without EVER leaving the classroom. It’s relatively new technology and so much more will be learning and used through this technology. I love the idea of Virtual field trips. A great example of a Virtual field trip is Tech Tool 6.3.

 On a personal note, I love how my Speech professor uses virtual field trips. Every time she says we are going to take a field trip to the library, we know she means that it’s time to go to the online library to go over things. Honestly though the first time she said that today we are going to take a field trip to the library, I cringed. I honestly didn’t feel like walking all the way across campus to go to the library. Thankfully she explained that we were going to stay right in class. While it was a simple trip (virtually) normally when we discuss Virtual field trips it includes more than just looking up things that the library website. 

There are many places that offer virtual tours and online field trip programs. Here are a few:

·      Colonial Williamsburg

·      Baseball Hall of Fame

·      Smithsonian Institution

·      U.S. Arizona Memorial

·      Cleveland Museum of Art

·      Lake Michigan Science Research Center

·      Global Leap (International Field Trips)

I can only imagine my students reaction to me telling them they are going on a field trip to another country! Of course I think the U.S. Arizona Memorial would be interesting and the Smithsonian is a place I certainly will be taking my students to! 

Interactive videoconferencing is another bit of technology that is coming into use more and more in the field of education. It’s a powerful distance learning technology that offers real-time access to people and places that students would otherwise be unable to visit. A side note, while some students are considered homebound students due to illness or other needs this videoconferencing can help include them into the classroom and it’s daily activities and lessons. This technology is no longer just for the boardrooms! 

I personally feel that having such great technology and opportunities at our fingertips as teachers should not be wasted! There is amazing information that will be remembered by our students. We just need to use it! 

In staying in form with WebQuests I chose Tech Tool 6.3 to discuss with you today.
An Interactive Online Field Trip: The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-D’Arc
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en

The above site is an interactive site that allows us to see cave paintings. Some of the earliest ever found. I went and checked it out, and must say this will be added to my delicious account to use when I start teaching. It’s a neat site and has great history behind it. Go and check it out!

I loved this chapter because it went over some great information and helped me learn how to access so much of this information and how to use it. Like I said before this information is out there! This technology is at our fingertips we need to use it in the classrooms. Again thank you for coming and reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed it! Have a great day and until next time!

Chau!



Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5