WEBquest contd.

This is going to be for fifth graders.

Students will be able to read, write, and discuss the origins, history, and structure of Ellis Island.

Students will create journals, use the internet, work in groups, and present the information that they found to the class. 

WebQuests.

Webquests are pretty cool.  

For my webquest, I am thinking about doing one for fifth grade social studies.  

In the UEN core curriculum,

1. The 19th century. and the civil war and the underground railroad.  I think that it would be really cool to have the students be different roles in the webquest.  They can research different people in the underground railroad.  I'm still thinking, but they could also make a letter to someone, make a poster, and present the information they found to the class.  That's one of my ideas.  

2.  Another idea is similar to one that I saw while looking up webquests.  In the fifth curriculum, it also talks about different trails that they need to know Oregon, Mormon, California, and Spanish.  I think it would be really cool to do something like that.  Where each student in the group is part of a different trail.  They research it, write a letter or something, make a poster, and present to the class.  

Web Site Evaluation

Answers to some questions about the website evaluation.

Some of the websites that I visited:

www.westfield.alpine.k12.ut.us/school/welcome.html

www.pecentral.com
http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/immigration.htm
http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interact-math.htm

I love the interactive website. And at another website that I looked at, the Mount Logan Middle School website it has links to different interactive websites, which I enjoyed.

A. What Forms did you like/dislike? I like the ncsu evaluation form. I like the idea of a point system for evaluation. It makes it easier than just a yes/no question. It separated it into four categories: navigation & presentation, content, appropriateness, and scope & validity. And then it narrowed it down even more, asking more specific questions. Then it had the scale at the bottom. It was good. I didn't really like the school discovery one. It was really well organized, but I felt that some of the questions towards the end were irrelevant for a school website. They did not include many questions that they could have to evaluate school websites.

B. Were there any secrets you discovered by using an evaluation form?

I didn't really find any 'secrets' that I discovered. I did find things that I would not normally look at or look for, which is good. Normally, I would just skim through many of these things. I would not normally go through and consciously think about each of those aspects. It is nice to be aware.

C. What is the value of using a web site evaluation process?

I have found that oftentimes, I do all of this evaluating on my own. I am so used to checking the validity of websites that I do it automatically. For the most part, I find many of the evaluation forms tedious and common sense. Because I automatically check the spelling, check the links, think about the pictures, the purpose, the accuracy, the date. However, I may introduce this idea to my students, to understand how to check the validity of a website. Because kids just believe everything that they read on the internet.

D. Are there times that you would/would not use a formal evaluation?

There will be times that I will use formal evaluations. Maybe when I post a website on an information site, as a resource for parents, or have my students themselves evaluating different websites. However, on my own time and for my own resources and coming up with lesson plans, I will most likely not use a formal evaluation.