Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Mod 4 Step 3: Final Blog Reflection

I found the introduction to Web 2 tools extremely helpful in expanding my curriculum. It’s so important for educators to stay abreast with emerging technologies. I plan on taking advantage of resource blogs as well as podcasts for resource material and acquiring new and different approaches for teaching. With so much information available, our class use of blogs for specific kinds of information will be critical for student success. It makes the learning process more exciting to my students, and any motivational tool I can use…I will.

After reviewing various blog sites I found perhaps the most useful http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/edtools.html
I found the site very helpful and full of excellent resources. Under the tab Lesson plans and Thinking Skills is a section called Technology Infusion Lesson Links…There are excellent links including Web Quests, which I plan to incorporate into my lesson plans.

Specifically I plan to create a Web Quest for my students exploring Iroquois history. Each student will choose a historical figure important in Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) history. They will research on the Internet using various search engines and blogs, as well as any podcast relevant to their subject. They will then create a 3 page paper using Quark Express to summarize their subject as well as share how and where their resources were found. Additionally, using Power Point they will create a slide show of at least 5 slides highlighting their historical figure and the era in which he/she lived.

4 comments:

  1. Gary,
    You will find that the Web Quest is a great way to engage kids. You have a good activity. I hope that it works well for your students.
    Andy

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  2. I agree that WebQuests can be very active learning experiences for students. I hate to show my ignorance, but what is "Quark Express?"

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  3. Diane,
    Quark is a desktop publishing software that is the standard within the publishing industry. Because I teach Graphic Arts in high school, I try to prepare my students to be job ready when they graduate. It gives them options!
    Gary

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  4. Your project sounds great. You could also do the same with a Wiki and have the students interact with each other as well. I think if I remember, that Webquests don't allow for that. You might want to check them out. pbworks is a good site for wikis and is easy to use. Best of luck. Keep searchig.

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