Wikispaces

Here's a Wiki I created for my cross-district grade level team.

http://3rdgradeeduwiki.wikispaces.com/

Wikipedia Edit

Well, now I can say I've edited my first Wikipedia article. While I didn't find anything alarming or amiss in the entry for my town, I did find a dead link to an elementary school. I signed up for private editing privileges, updated the link for the school, and saved the changes. All in all, the process was relatively easy.

Quality WebQuests

What makes a quality WebQuest? That is today's question. Bernie Dodge, creator of the WebQuest cites several specific qualities, including: an introduction to set the stage; an interesting, doable task; web-based information resources; the process or steps the learner takes; some guidance on how to organize the information (a product); and a conclusion to bring closure. See WebQuest.Org for resources.

Short term Quests (1-3 class periods) are for knowledge acquisition and integration and long term Quests (a week to a month) are for analyzing knoweldge deeply, transforming it, and create a product to share with a larger audience. The long term Quest should also include higher order thinking skills such as: comparing, classifying, inducing, deducing, analysis, construction, and evaluation.

I've searched high and low for what I would consider a quality WebQuest and have come up mostly empty. What I have found seem to fall under the category of "change without a difference." They are presented in a way that uses technology, but only to deliver content- the same content that could be read in a textbook or other printed format. Many of the Quests did not call for higher order thinking at all, and the tasks were vague.

Some of the other pitfalls included: reading levels that were too difficult for the grade, too many options for finding information, pages with too much information in too small of type, dead links, projects that called for multiple worksheets, and on and on. Some things I wished I'd found: sites that asked students to interpret information or data, not just read and regurgitate; sites that took advantage of experts in the field; sites that called for students to think critically about information. I know that creating a WebQuests takes a considerable amount of time, but if they are done in the spirit of Bernie Dodge's intentions, they need to be done well, so they can truly be "change with a difference."

Time Spent vs. Benefits

Well, it's been a few days, and my technology life has been interesting to say the least. I'm struggling again with the idea of how best to juggle the amount of time spent working on/ creating/ thinking about/ learning about how to integrate technology in my classroom vs. the actual educational benefits for students. Sometimes I feel like I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to learn how to use certain technology tools or getting technology to work (when I need it) and the benefit is not worth the cost. Here's the struggle. Yesterday, during a routine update to my teacher machine, all of the stored data on my thumb drive was lost. Luckily, most of it was a backup, but not all of it. We'll see how much can be magically retrieved. So, the question is, "How much time do I spend trying to retrieve what was lost?" Web site files, SMARTBoard notebook files, pictures.... the list goes on and on- thousands of files. It takes a great deal of work to technologically recreate what I could easily and quickly do on paper. So, again, what is the benefit of using technology instead of paper, pencils, and books? I guess since I myself am a visual learner, I benefit as much if not more than the students from the use of technology. I enjoy using and looking at a well done power point or web page, as a picture is often worth more than a thousand words. So, I'll regroup and decide what can't be retrieved, what is worth doing over (and well) and carry on. Maybe in the process, I'll find a better, updated tool or strategy to replace what I've lost- I'll try to look at it as an opportunity.