Allman WebQuest Evaluation

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.	3 A picture might be interesting on the Home page.
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 I like the Captain America video!  J The task is doable and engaging.
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
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.	2 **The Huskerpower Link opens up a page with what looks like Chinese writing!  I think that something may have happened!**  The other websites that you pasted links to are relevant.
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.	0 I couldn’t find any CSOs.
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
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.	2
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

WebQuest Evaluation

1. Which two of example WebQuests listed below are the best ones? Why?
"Unraveling the Underground Railroad" and "Grow School Greens" were the two best WebQuest examples because they were very clear and understandable.  They were also interesting. 


2. Which two are the worst? Why?
The two worst WebQuests were the "Ancient Egypt WebQuest" because it lacked a neat, readable format and "Where is My Hero" because although the idea was good, the project lacked a significant amount of technology use. 


3. What do best and worst mean to you?
The best WebQuests are those which are interesting, easily read and figured out, and also fun. 
The worst WebQuests are those which are a little boring and whose directions are not as easily lined out. 

Technophile WebQuest Assignment

My role: Technophile

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	Uses MANY different forms of Technology	Time restrictions play significant role.  This could be a hindrance.
Where is My Hero?	Much less technology use	Uses worksheets a lot instead of different options
Underground Railroad	Offers many websites to use as resources	A lot of reading required on site
Ice Cream	Students have to advertise which uses technology	No specific weakness identified
Ancient Egypt	Several links that take you to other pages	Site looks plain and almost boring

Top Ten Video Response

The activities shown in the Top Ten video differ greatly from the activities that I engaged in during my K-12 education.  For example, until this past Wednesday, I had NEVER seen a Smart Board being used.  The technology use when I was in elementary school was very limited. 

Yes, my learning style is addressed in these activities.  In my Teaching Philosophy, I stated that learning should be fun, but also effecient and effective.  The students in the video were having great fun using the technology, and they were learning in the process! 

I would love to be able to teach without the use of textbook after textbook when I have my own classroom. 

My only concern is a fear that in our rural schools, there will be insufficient funding for all of the neat, new technology.

Blogging Blog

1. What do you like or dislike about keeping a blog for this course?

I like posting the creative things that we've created to our blogs in this couse.  It's interesting to see the other people's work. 

 

2. How can keeping a blog make you a more effective teacher?

Blogging is a good way to communicate to students.  Maybe in a classroom, the students could create blogs and then could use them to communicate with each other and the teacher. 

 

3. Will you consider continuing to post to your blog after this course is over? Why?

I will probably not continue posting to my blog after the course is over because no one sees my postings but me (and Professor Lindstrom for class purposes).  Therefore, it would seem a little pointless. 

 

4. Keeping a blog helps you develop four new media literacies:

• Appropriation - The ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content.
• Collective Intelligence - The ability to share and pool knowledge and compare notes with each other toward a common goal.
• Transmedia Navigation.- The ability to follow the flow of information and stories across multiple modalities.
• Networking - The ability to search for synthesizes and disseminate information.

By creating the Think Aloud, I have learned about using a blog for transmedia navigation. 

Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe

1.Did the class activity about Wikipedia and this article change your opinion about the value of Wikipedia to society in general and education specifically?

Yes.  I have always been told that Wikipedia contains lots of false information.  However, I often use it anyway.  After today's lesson and reading the article, I have decided that Wikipedia really isn't so bad.  The people who edut the information on the site are held responsible for the information that they post.  Therefore, most of the information is credible. 

2. Describe how you might direct students to use Wikipedia in your future classroom.

In my future classroom, I might have students invistigate the validity of Wikipedia articles and authorrs by using the "Who is" tool and by clicking on the IP addresses of the author's pages.  This way, they will learn more about checking validity. 

Wikipedia

Wikipedia Questions and Answers

a. What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a Web-based encyclopedia project with over 8 million articles.

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”
I would like to believe that the only people who would edit a Wikipedia article are those who are trying to improve it. Hopefully no one would intentionally put wrong information online.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? When it comes to weeding out misinformation, the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in the “wisdom of the crowds.”

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? Larry Sanger left Wikipedia because he felt that it should give more credit to the experts who write articles for the site.

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? To a normal reader, abuse or vandalism may not stand out. It may just look like the factual information that is included on the site.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? The statistics reveal that Wikipedia is a very widely used and very well-known website.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? I think it’s so successful because there are so many articles. Also, Wikipedia articles are common results for Google searches.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? Because there is still a possibility that the information is incorrect on a Wikipedia site, the creators may not want to accept advertising because they don’t want advertisers to be associated with any misinformation.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries? The Wikiscanner checks the IP address of anonymous users who want to edit the site.

Think Aloud

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Website Credibility

Name of page: Dog Island Free Forever

URL: http://www.thedogisland.com/

Date accessed: April 1, 2011

Domain:  .com

I feel that the .com domain type takes from the credibility of the website.  We have learned that anyone can buy a .com site.  Thus, the site could have been created by someone who isn’t a reliable source.

Author: No author is given, but the President and Founder of Dog Island is listed.  (Xiao Min and Han Fei) 

These men have to professional credentials.  They do not list having any education, and don’t sound very professional.  They do list having one employee who is a “Dogologist.”

Contact information: There are e-mail addresses for the founders and employees of Dog Island. 

The purpose for the site is clearly identified.  The founders of Dog Island feel that dogs are happiest whenever they are free to live without human influence on Dog Island.  The website is trying to persuade people to send their dogs to the island.

Intended audience: Dog-lover adults and students (to teach about web site credibility)

Current:  The copyright on the website was 2003-2010 which is pretty current.  However, there was a broken link on the site.  (When it was clicked on, it took you to an article that had been removed from the internet.  

This site is clearly not a reliable page.  It was created with the intentions of teaching students that they have to test the validity of a web site before they use the information found on it.